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STUDIES  IN  ECONOMICS  AND  POLITICAL  SCIENCE. 

Edited  by  the  Director  of  the  London  School  of 
Economics  and  Political  Science. 

Xo.  58  in  the  Series  of  Monographs  by  writers  connected  with  the 
London  School  of  Economics  and  Political  Science. 


COMMERCIAL    ADVERTISING 


COMMERCIAL 
ADVERTISING 

SIX  LECTURES  AT  THE  LONDON   SCHOOL 

OF    ECONOMICS   AND    POLITICAL    SCIENCE 

(UNIVERSITY   OF  LONDON) 

LENT     TERM      I919 
WITH    ADDITIONS,    INCLUDING 

INTRODUCTION   AND   APPENDIX 

BY 

THOMAS     RUSSELL 

PRESIDEMT  OF  THE  INCORPORATED  SOCIETY  OF  ADVERTISEMENT  CONSULTANTS 
SOMETIME  ADVERTISEMENT-MANAGER  OF   "  THE  TIMES";     AUTHOR  OF 
"success  in   retail  ADVERTISING,"  ETC. 


LONDON    y  NEW   YORK 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S   SONS,   LTD, 

1919 


^"'L 

'V^ 


First  Published  July  1919 


••  •  • 
,  •  • « .  • 


'•  •  -  ••  •  .••  • 


« "  •  *  •  I 


PREFACE 

THE  Lectures    forming  the  main  part  of   this 
volume  are  reproduced,  as  far  as  possible  in 
the  original  language,  from  the  notes  prepared 
in  advance.     A  few  passages  which  had  to  be  omitted 
for  lack  of  time  have  been  restored. 

The  audiences  were  composed  of  students  at  the 
London  School  of  Economics  and  Political  Science, 
with  a  number  of  young  men  and  women  contem- 
plating a  career  in  Advertising,  and  some  others 
already  thus  engaged.  The  average  age  must  have 
been  well  under  thirty.  Several  young  men  in 
khaki,  chiefly  from  the  Colonies,  attended,  with  the 
evident  purpose  of  taking  back  with  them  some 
knowledge  of  selling-methods  in  this  Motherland. 
Thus  the  Lectures  had  to  be  confined  with  some 
strictness  to  practical  subjects,  treated  in  a  fairly 
elementary  fashion,  though  general  commercial 
knowledge  was  assumed. 

For  this  reason  it  has  been  thought  desirable  to 
preface  the  text  with  an  introductory  sketch, 
indicating  the  derivations  and  present  status  of 
Commercial  Advertising  ;  and  to  supplement  it  with 
an  Appendix,  discussing  subjects  which  would  have 
been  included  in  the  Lectures  themselves  had  time 
permitted. 

This  book  does  not  purport  to  be  a  working 
text-book  of  Advertising,  but  rather  a  statement 
of  practical  principles.     It  will  be  noted  that  every 


403251 


vi  PREFACE 

opportunity  has  been  taken  to  illustrate  the  theories 
propounded,  with  examples  described  from  actual 
practice.  Wherever  possible — that  is,  wherever 
discretion  permitted — the  actual  names  are  given. 
On  the  principle  enunciated  in  the  text,  l;hat  policy- 
is  greatly  more  important  than  *  copy,'  the  miniature 
reproductions  of  newspaper  advertisements  which 
usually  embellish  books  and  technical  periodicals 
devoted  to  this  subject  have  been  omitted.  A  little 
liveliness  of  appearance  is  no  doubt  thus  sacrificed. 
But  as  it  is  perfectly  useless  to  discuss  advertise- 
ments without  a  full  statement  of  the  policy  behind 
them,  fully  known  only  by  the  advertisers  themselves, 
I  preferred  rather  to  approach  the  subject  from  the 
side  which  is  really  important. 

THOMAS   RUSSELL. 

Clun  House, 
London,  W.C.  2. 
July,  1919. 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION '^7 

LECTURE   I 

THE  ECONOMIC  JUSTIFICATION  OF  ADVERTISING 

Ancient  prejudices  dying — The  new  era  in  Advertising — The 
word  '  advertise  '  :  its  history — Advertising  defined — 
Influence  of  Advertising  in  removing  an  objectionable 
secrecy — Modem  reforms  in  advertisements  traceable  to  the 
United  States — The  Printers'  Ink  Statute — Economics  of 
Advertising — Advertising  and  its  opponents — The  influence 
of  Advertising  on  prices — On  new  inventions — Economic 
usefulness  of  Advertising  in  standardisation  of  products — 
And  in  reducing  expense  of  distribution — What  retail  prices 
are  composed  of — Advertising  enlarges  the  market — 
Statistics  in  consumption  of  cocoa  in  Britain,  and  tobacco 
in  the  United  States — How  Advertising  shortens  the  path  of 
the  product — Cutting  out  the  middle-man — Proportion  of 
Advertising  to  sales — Advertising  as  a  waste-preventer — 
Sale  of  by-products  made  possible  by  Advertising — If  there 
were  no  Advertising  ?       .  .  .  .  .  .  .45 


LECTURE   II 

ADVERTISING— ITS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY 

Commercial  functions  of  Advertising — What  Advertising  will  sell 
— How  Advertising  affects  prices — Protection  without  a 
tariff — Advertising  Policy  defined — Considerations  which 
dictate  it — How  Advertising  maintains  quality — Examples 
of  Advertising  Policy — Mistaken  policy  used  by  insurance 
advertisers — Advertising  problems  and  problems  solved  by 
advertising — Unexpected  profits  in  Advertising — Advertiser 
must  keep  faith  with  the  public — The  three  functions  of 
Advertising  :  to  create  a  new  want ;  to  increase  the  sale  of  anil  *" 
established  product ;  to  protect  the  advertiser  against  com-' 
petition — Introducing  a  new  invention  :  a  practical  example 
— Merchandising  problems — Competing  with  an  established 
product :  example  of  Farrow's  Mustard — Press  Advertising  to 
secure  retail  distribution — The  Times  Book  Club — Main- 
taining demand  for  an  advertised  product — Advertising  to 
increase  consumption — Ideas  more  important  than  ex- 
penditure— Who  pays  for  Advertising  ? — Cost  of  Advertising 
— Exact  methods  of  Advertising — Statistical  devices  used 
in  Advertising — Use  of  graphs  and  charts — Ratio  of  Advertis- 
ing to  sales — the  Curve  of  Pursuit 78 

vii 


viii  CONTENTS 


LECTURE   III 

COPY-WRITING  AND  THE  PRACTICAL  PSYCHOLOGY 
OF  ADVERTISING 

PAGE 

Practical  psychology  in  Advertising — Advertisement-writing — 
Nineteenth-century  Advertising  :  the  use  of  repetition — 
Twentieth-century  Advertising  :  the  appeal  of  reason — 
Improved  Uterary  form  of  modern  advertisements — The 
appeal  to  emotion  —  '  Reason-why  '  copy  —  The  three 
functions  of  an  advertisement :  to  attract,  to  convince,  and 
to  persuade — Attraction-value  of  pictures — Superior  attrac- 
tion-value of  headUnes — Suggestion  by  association  of  ideas 
— Uses  of  display  type — Headhnes  and  headline-writing — 
Argument  in  Advertising — Use  of  pictures  and  diagrams — 
Putting  the  '  punch  '  into  Advertising — The  art  of  advertise- 
ment-writing— A  highly  specialised  calling — EngUsh  the 
best  language  for  Advertising — The  importance  of  studying 
the  goods  advertised — ^What  makes  a  strong  and  what  a 
weak  advertisement — Importance  of  definite  statement — 
Use  and  abuse  of  brevity — Change  of  copy — Epigram  run 
mad — Slogans — Qualifications  of  the  advertisement-writer — 
Cleverness  no  substitute  for  honesty — Two  ways  of  writing 
advertisements — Psychological  effects  of  type-forms      .  .118 


LECTURE   IV 

THE  HALL-MARK  OF  COMMERCE:  TRADE-MARKS 
AND  RETAIL  ADVERTISING 

The  interest  of  the  purchaser  paramount — Economic  importance 
of  enabUng  consumer  to  recognise  goods — Advertising  with- 
out a  trade-mark,  and  trade-marks  without  Advertising — 
Economic  usefulness  of  trade-marks — Advertising  expenses 
should  be  capitalised — Trade-marks  and  the  Common  Law — 
Origin  of  trade-marks — The  appeal  of  the  picture — Trade- 
marks :  effective  and  ineffective — Some  trade-mark  dangers 
— Trade-marks  must  be  protected — An  official  attack  on 
trade-marks — Trade-marks  that  are  dangerous — The  sub- 
stitution problem — Two  kinds  of  substitution — When  sub- 
stitution is  illegal — How  to  checkmate  substitution — 
Mascots — The  essential  requirements  of  a  good  mascot — 
Organised  maintenance  of  retail  prices — Retail  Advertising — 
The  shop  an  equivalent  of  a  trade-mark — Retail  and  whole- 
sale Advertising  contrasted — When  retail  Advertising  is  news 
— When  retail  Advertising  raised  the  circulation  of  a  news- 
paper— Departmental  store  problems — A  Canadian  depart- 
mental store  and  its  mail-order  business — Retailers  in  special 
lines  of  business  :  their  problems  simpler  than  those  of 
mixed  retailers — ^What  a  retailer  should  advertise — Whole- 
salers advertising  to  shopkeepers — The  commonest  defect  in 
trade-paper  Advertising  .         .  .  .  .  ,  .146 


CONTENTS  ix 

LECTURE  V 
THE  THREE  MAIN  MODES  OF  ADVERTISING 

PACE 

Advertising  not  confined  to  newspapers — The  Press,  the  Poster, 
and  Printed -matter — Their  ancillary  modes — Difference 
between  Advertising  and  Publicity — The  Press  the  supreme 
medium  for  Advertising  ;  the  Poster  the  supreme  medium 
of  Publicity — Where  Press  Advertising  is  the  most  ef&cient 
and  economical  mode — Selling  goods  of  every-day  consump- 
tion— SelUng  technical  products — The  choice  of  a  medium — 
Difi&culty  of  selecting  individual  papers — The  Press  classified 
for  advertising  purposes — The  medium  for  products  and 
utiUties  of  constant  use — Classified  Advertising  as  a  test  of 
circulation — Relative  efficiency  of  morning  and  evening 
papers — Where  the  evening  paper  is  supreme — Advertising 
for  direct  replies — Sunday  and  weekly  newspapers — Their 
special  use — Magazine  advertisements — Foreign  inquiries 
overvalued — Influence  of  newspapers  on  advertisements  and 
of  advertisements  on  newspapers — The  evil  of  undisclosed 
circulation — Where  the  poster  is  the  best  advertisement — 
Billposting  an  economical  mode  of  advertising — Posters  as 
a  means  of  securing  retail  distribution — Posters  free  from 
waste  circulation — Circulars  and  pamphlets — Their  advan- 
tages and  disadvantages  for  advertising — Circulars  by  letter- 
post  and  book-post — Form-letters — Mechanical  devices — 
The  writing  of  form-letters — The  two  important  parts — 
The  pronoun  '  you  ' — Postscripts — Form-letters  in  Mail 
Order  advertising    .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .180 


LECTURE  VI 

PART  I.— MAIL-ORDER  ADVERTISING 

The  term  '  Mail  Order  ' — American  Mail  Order  Advertising — 
Importance  of  veracity — The  worst  obstacle  to  honest,  mail- 
order Advertising — Selhng  technical  goods  by  mail  order 
methods — Selling  service  by  mail-order  methods — 
Guaranteed  advertising — The  Encyclopedia  Britannica  a 
mail-order  proposition — The  Encyclopcsdia  Britannica 
campaign  described — Circularising  for  mail-order  purposes — 
How  to  obtain  names — How  a  mail-order  advertisement 
should  be  framed — Statistical  work  in  Mail  Order — Follow- 
up  systems — A  fallacious  follow-up — Making  the  follow-up 
automatic        .........     210 


PART  II.— ADVERTISING  AS  A  CAREER 

Honest  Advertising  a  modem  invention — Growthjof  scientific 
methods — Opportunities  for  intelligent  workers — Advertis- 
ing not  an  art — Advertising  a  business  easily  entered — 
Advertising  lavish  in  reward,  but  merciless  in  criticism — 


CONTENTS 


Qualifications  of  an  advertising  man — Training  required — 
How  to  obtain  training — Where  varied  businesses  can  be 
studied — Amateur  work  not  wanted — Research  work  and 
advertising  pohcy  :  Examples — Research  work  on  business 
records — Influence  of  Advertising  upon  salesmanship  and 
upon  production — Openings  for  the  copywriter — How  a  copy- 
writer is  trained  — How  advertising  men  advance — Adminis- 
trative work  in  Advertising :  the  Contract  Department — 
How  to  study  Advertising — Conclusion        .         .         .         .235 

APPENDIX 257 

INDEX 299 


COMMERCIAL    ADVERTISING 

INTRODUCTION 

Advertising  :    Its  Past,  Present,  and  Future 

THE  historical  aspects  of  Advertising  will 
only  be  discussed  here  in  so  far  as  they  derive 
practical  importance  from  the  way  in  which 
modern  Commercial  Advertising  is  affected  by  its 
origins.  Advertising  had  its  birth  when  the  first 
maker  of  a  useful  commodity  had  served  all  the 
customers  who  came  to  him  unsought,  and  used  some 
mode  of  making  known  his  ability  tq  supply  J  wares 
to  others.  Perhaps  he  was  a 'cave^dwellex  Jw}{o 
allowed  to  be  visible  from  the  entrance  of  his  abode 
more  stone  axes  than  a  family  of  the  prehistoric 
age  customarily  employed  in  its  pursuit  of  food. 
Advertising  as  a  definite  business  may  be  more  con- 
veniently said  to  have  been  born  when  merchants 
and  manufacturers  first  began  to  employ  someone 
else  to  promote  their  sales.  This  definition,  at  all 
events,  will  bring  the  ancientry  of  Advertising  within 
manageable  limits.  Readers  desirous  of  delving 
deeper  into  the  guilty  past  may  go — if  they  can  find 
it — to  the  only  history  of  Advertising  in  existence, 
so  far  as  I  am  aware,  the  late  Henry  Sampson's 


1  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

amusing  volume  of  1874,^  now  a  scarce  book.  Samp- 
son, afterwards  better  known  as  '  Pendragon '  of  the 
Referee,  was  not  a  weighty  writer  on  the  subject,  and 
gives  no  evidence  of  knowing — or  caring — anything 
at  all  about  Advertising.  The  book  is  in  no  sense 
complete.  It  skips  long  periods  without  shame,  and 
dwells  at  disproportionate  length  on  anything  which 
the  author  happened  to  find  amusing.  He  devotes 
a  long  chapter  of  fifty-three  pages  to  Lotteries 
and  Lottery  Insurances,  and  another  nearly  half 
as  long  to  Matrimonial  Advertisements  from  1695 
to  his  own  time.  Another  entire  chapter  describes 
in  detail  an  old  swindle,  Graham's  Celestial 
Bed,  and  an  establishment  (over  which  the  future 
Lady  Hamilton  presided)  known  as  the  Temple 
of  Health.  There  is  little  or  no  indication  that 
the  author  had  ever  considered  Advertising  as  a 
serious  business.  The  history,  in  fact,  is  a  sad  piece 
of  '  book-making.'  The  subject  awaits  its  serious 
historian.  .    ^  •  '  c^  •  ; 

Advertising 'applied  to  useful  commercial  ends, 
^•§  '.  disti^i^uished .  from  the  swindles  described  by 
Sariajpson,  was,  at  the  beginning  of  things,  a  bald 
statement  that  someone  had  desirable  commodities 
for  sale.  Very  soon,  exaggeration  and  flowery 
language  crept  into  the  simple  announcement.  News- 
papers of  the  eighteenth  century  contain  advertise- 
ments that  are  straightforward  enough.  But  the 
temptation  to  claim  for  the  goods  more  merit  than 
they  really  possessed  seems  to  have  been  too  much  for 
the  integrity  of  the  retail  tradesmen  who  were  the 

*  A  I  History  of  Advertising  |  From  the  Earliest  Times.  |  Illustrated 
by  Anecdotes,  curious  specimens  and  |  biographical  notes,  |  By  Henry 
Sampson.  |  With  illustrations  and  fac-similes.  |  London  |  Chatto  & 
Windus,  Piccadilly,  j  1874.     (Cloth  extra,  gilt,  ys.  6d.) 


INTRODUCTION  S' 

only  advertisers ;  and  a  century  of  experience,  during 
which  manufacturers  discovered  that  the  easiest 
way  to  sell  goods  by  wholesale  was  to  do  the  retailer's 
selling  for  him  by  advertising  to  the  consumer,  was 
required  to  lead  up  to  a  greater  discovery  still.  The 
example  of  a  minority  of  traders,  who  were  en- 
lightened enough  to  advertise,  but  too  upright  to 
say  in  print  what  they  would  have  been  ashamed 
to  say  in  person,  presently  showed  that  there  was 
money  to  be  made  by  telling  the  truth. 

The  business  of  Advertising  still  suffers  from  the 
prejudices  created  by  earlier  misconduct.  Adver- 
tisement in  the  early  nineteenth  century  had  become 
synonymous  with  claptrap  and  misrepresentation. 
Nobody  believed  that  mere  truth  would  sell  the 
goods.  But  Advertising  had  become  a  necessity. 
Anyone  who  wanted  to  do  business  on  a  large  scale 
must  advertise  in  some  way,  and  competition  forced 
publicity  upon  the  unwilling. 

Declining  to  follow  the  evil  precedent  set  by  their 
less  scrupulous  rivals,  several  firms  hit  upon  a  way 
out  of  the  difficulty.  They  desired  to  advertise. 
They  were,  in  fact,  bound  to  advertise  if  they  were  to 
obtain  value  for  their  investments  in  plant.  The 
development  of  machinery  and  the  use  of  steam, 
bringing  in  their  train  the  factory  system,  left  them 
no  alternative.  It  became  more  and  more  expensive 
to  set  up  in  business  as  a  manufacturer  of  anything. 
The  old  way  of  making  things  by  hand  had  not 
required  much  money  for  plant.  The  new  way 
required  a  great  deal  of  money,  and  large  buildings. 
Unless  the  output  were  large,  rent  and  its  equivalents, 
interest  on  capital  and  its  equivalents,  and  everything 
that  a  modern  accountant  calls  '  overhead  expense ', 


4  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

would  be  crippling.  But  large  output  was  useless 
unless  the  goods  could  be  sold.  Advertising  was 
the  only  way  to  sell  them. 

Rejecting  with  honourable  disdain  the  thought 
of  saying  things  about  their  wares  that  were  not 
true,  some  large  manufacturers  hit  upon  a  brilliant 
idea.  They  would  announce  their  goods.  But  they 
would  say  nothing  about  them  at  all,  or  as  little  as 
might  be.  The  name,  and  the  name  alone,  was 
blazoned  forth,  on  crude  posters ;  by  advertisements 
in  large,  heavy  type  or  blocks  of  white  letters  on  a 
solid  ground  of  black  ;  or  in  some  newspapers  with 
queer  effects  obtained  by  repeating  the  name  of  the 
goods  again  and  again  in  the  smallish  type  to  which 
these  newspapers  confined  advertisements.  Wher- 
ever the  eye  of  the  public  turned,  it  was  liable  to 
encounter  the  advertiser's  name.  Illustration  was, 
at  first,  little  used.  Some  later  genius  conceived 
the  idea  that  people  would  look  longer  at  a  word  if 
there  were  a  pretty  picture  near  it.  You  could 
not  eat  the  jam  without  the  powder  :  you  could 
not,  that  is,  look  at  the  picture  without  reading  the 
words. 

The  psychology  of  the  results  obtained  by  such 
publicity  as  this  lies  a  little  way — though  not  far — 
below  the  surface.  It  is  doubtful  whether  the  plan 
was  adopted  with  any  clear  notion  of  how  it  would 
work.  The  fact  that  it  did  work  is  due,  in  part,  to 
the  law,  then  unformulated,  that  only  wares  that 
are  worth  the  purchaser's  while  to  buy  are  worth 
the  vendor's  while  to  advertise.  Assuredly,  in  the 
limited  markets  of  the  mid- Victorian  era,  the  amount 
of  the  very  crude  (and  therefore  costly)  publicity 
required  to  sell  every  unit  afresh,  would  have  swamped 


INTRODUCTION  =5 

the  profits.  These  displayed  advertisements  sold 
goods  which  proved  meritorious,  and  the  merit  of 
the  goods  caused  them  to  be  bought  again.  Publicity 
produced  customers,  not  one-time  sales.  The  fact 
that,  through  their  inefficiency,  the  ever-repeated 
announcements  of  this  period  must  have  cost  a  very 
large  sum  in  proportion  to  the  sales  which  they 
created,  crushed  out  the  seller  of  inferior  merchandise. 
He  did  not  know,  probably,  why  he  was  crushed ; 
but  the  progressive  logic  of  events  was  leading  up 
to  the  discovery  which  has  made  modern— that  is, 
honest — Advertising  a  public  benefit,  where  the 
antiquated  Advertising  that  went  before  the  simple- 
display  era  was  a  public  nuisance. 

Why,  however,  did  publicity  of  the  mere  name 
— repetition  carried  to  its  limit — sell  anything  at 
all  ?  What  is  the  psychological  law  behind  the  fact 
that  if  you  see  the  words  '  Pears'  Soap  '  often  enough 
you  will  presently  wash  with  Pears'  soap  ?  Did  the 
constant  repetition  of  what  would  nowadays  be 
called  a  *  slogan  '  convince  people  that  Epps's  cocoa 
was  really  *  grateful — ^comforting  '  ? 

I  think  the  explanation,  in  which  are  also  implied 
the  limitations,  of  how  this  kind  of  publicity  worked 
its  wonders,  can  be  stated  with  certainty.  In 
psychological  terms  the  effect  is  explained  by  the 
doctrine  of  association  of  ideas.  Physiologically,  it 
is  an  effect  of  fatigue.  Commercially,  it  is  an  effect 
obtained  through  the  tendency  of  every  force  to 
follow  the  line  of  least  resistance. 

By  frequently  associating  the  idea  ^  cocoa ' 
with  the  name  Epps,  Mr.  Epps  obtained  the  result, 
that  when  either  of  these  words  was  recalled  to 
memory,  it  brought  with  it  the  other.     A  person 


6  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

who  had  seen  them  together  sufficiently  often  could 
not  think  of  cocoa  without  also  thinking  of  Epps. 
Whether  he  consciously  worked  along  this  route  or 
not,  Mr.  Epps  did,  in  fact,  cause  everyone  to  be 
seeing  the  words  '  Epps's  Cocoa '  very  often  :  and,  his 
name  being  a  little  unusual,  he  skilfully  assisted  the 
public  memory  by  adding  the  more  familiar  words 
'  grateful — comforting.'  Very  likely  what  Mr.  Epps 
thought  he  was  doing,  was  publishing  a  truthful 
description  of  his  product,  and  doing  no  more.  What 
he  really  did  was  to  print  a  truthful  description  of  his 
product,  associating  with  it  agreeable  ideas.  But,  con- 
sidering the  general  state  of  Advertising  in  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  I  do  not  think  that  he 
made  people  believe  that  Epps's  cocoa  was  grateful 
and  comforting,  merely  because  he  said  so.  I  think 
he  only  made  the  name  easier  to  recall.  Other 
advertisers  said  less  :  '  Bennett's  Watches ', '  Reckitt's 
Paris  Blue ',  '  Crosby's  Cough  Elixir ',  '  Fry's  Pure 
Cocoa',  are  each  the  entire  wording  of  a  whole 
advertisement  in  a  newspaper  of  1840,  now  in 
my  possession. 

It  is,  of  course,  a  fact  that  the  brain  is 
unconsciously  fatigued  by  every  impression  that  it 
receives,  and  by  each  effort  that  it  makes.  By 
fatiguing  the  part  of  the  brain  which  is  affected 
by  the  optic  nerve,  the  effect  called  hypnosis  can 
be  produced  :  and  a  hypnotised  person  is  influenced 
by  suggestion  in  altogether  abnormal  ways.  The 
constant  repetition  of  a  name  has  a  brain-wearying 
effect,  which  it  would  be  going  rather  far,  perhaps, 
to  call  hypnotic,  but  which  does  exercise  a  certain 
amount  of  suggestion  in  the  hypnotist's  sense.  It 
will  be  recalled  that  investigators  of  one  scientific 


INTRODtrcTlON  > 

School  attribute  all  hypnotic  phenomena  to  pure 
suggestion  :  the  revolving  mirrors  or  *  passes '  of 
the  other  schools  are  by  these  investigators  believed 
to  act,  not  through  the  eyes,  but  directly  on  the 
mind,  by  suggestion.  Without  carrying  the  analogy 
of  hypnotism  too  far,  it  may  be  said  with  certainty 
that  thought,  like  any  other  force,  does  tend  to 
follow  the  line  of  least  resistance.  When  the  mind 
is  called  upon  for  an  idea,  it  will  select,  if  it  can, 
the  one  which  can  be  produced  with  the  smallest  effort. 
In  popular  language,  we  say  whatever  we  first  think 
of.  We  do  not  delve  into  the  abysms  of  consciousness. 
The  first  association  called  up  by  the  applied  stim\ilus 
comes  out.  Judgment,  selection,  criticism,  are  much 
more  complex  operations  of  the  mind  than  recollection. 
Will,  in  any  strict  sense,  requires  still  more  effort. 
Without  knowing  it,  we  have  a  tendency  to  shirk 
these  greater  efforts  of  mind  unless  we  are  conscious 
of  some  reason  for  enduring  them.  Fatigue  is  being 
endured,  when  a  person  is  in  a  shop,  through  a  variety 
of  unperceived  causes.  Perhaps  the  attention  of  the 
shopper  is  divided  between  ordering  and  paying  for 
goods  and  the  conversation  of  a  companion.  The 
complicated  appeals  of  all  the  merchandise  dis- 
played, and  perhaps  the  '  pushing  '  of  wares  by  the 
shopman,  are  also  overlain  by  efforts  of  memory  : 
*  What  else  was  I  to  buy  when  I  came  to  the  grocer's  ? 
Oh  !  cocoa.  Some  cocoa,  Mr.  Rhys.'  *  What  kind 
of  cocoa,  madam  ?  '  '  Epps's,  please.'  The  first 
association  called  up  by  the  word  '  cocoa  '  triumphs. 
We  follow  the  line  of  least  resistance. 

But  the  association  of  ideas  created  by  mere 
repetition  is  much  less  powerful  than  the  impulse 
created  by  critical  judgment.     Even  the  association 


t  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

of  '  grateful — comforting  '    with  *  Epps  '    does  not 
act  so  powerfully  as  the  effect  of  an  argument  which 
has   convinced   us   that   some   other   kind   of  cocoa 
is  more  palatable,  more  digestible,  or  in  some  other 
way  more  desirable,  than  Epps's.     In  the  terms  used 
a  little  earlier,  such  a  conviction  does  supply  the 
mind  with  a  motive  for  enduring  the  greater  effort 
of  deciding  according  to  reason,  instead  of  following 
the  line  of  least  resistance.     When  Blondeau  &  Cie 
first  began  to  exploit  their  discovery  that  it  was 
possible  to  say  something  else  about  soap    besides 
the  name,  the  policy  which  they  adopted,  as  they 
conceived   themselves   obliged   to   attack   the   great 
popular    demand    enjoyed    by   Pears'  soap,   was   to 
use  elaborate  arguments  in  favour  of  Vinolia   soap, 
including  a  veiled  attack  on  Pears'.    They  explained 
the  objectionable  effects  of  any  soap  not  specially 
protected  against  excess  of  alkalinity.     They  stated 
that  the  natural  tendency  of  soap  was  to  be  alkaline, 
and  that  it  was  very  difficult  to  make  soap  in  such  a 
way  as  to  be  exactly  neutral.     An  excess  of  fatty 
matter,   on   the   other   hand,  was,  they  contended, 
rather  an  advantage  than  otherwise.    To  avoid  any 
possibility    of    alkaline    excess,    therefore,    said    the 
advertisements,  Vinolia  soap  contained  extra  cream 
(a  much  nicer  expression  than  '  fatty  acids  '),  and 
people  who  valued  their  skins  might  now  know  how 
these  could  be  protected. 

Now  it  is  certain  that  a  person  who  had  read 
this  argument,  and  been  convinced  by  it,  would  have 
an  inducement  to  fight  against  the  association  of 
ideas  which  had  long  made  '  Pears  '  and  '  Soap ' 
seem  synonymous  terms.  The  Vinolia  advertising 
was  the  first  heavy  attack  on  the  ascendancy  which 


INTRODUCTION  9 

Pears'  soap  had  acquired  by  advertisements  which 
nearly  always  consisted,  either  of  the  name  alone, 
or  occasionally  of  this  name  with  a  very  little  added 
matter.  Events  were  moving.  Even  the  Pears' 
soap  advertisements  did  sometimes  say  something. 
The  late  Mr.  Barratt  had  a  geat  belief  that  the 
relatively  small  size  of  a  cake  of  Pears'  soap,  when 
compared  with  other  soaps,  militated  against  its 
sale,  though  its  lower  humidity  and  consequent 
hardness  made  it  last  longer,  because  there  was  a 
smaller  waste  from  solution.  Mr.  Barratt  sometimes 
used  an  argument  from  this  fact :  Pears'  soap  was 
all  soap  :  not  soap  and  water.  But  except  for 
slogans,  like  the  famous  and  rather  meaningless 
*  Good  morning,'  and  little  quips  ^  and  riddles,  or  a 
testimonial  like  Mrs.  Weldon's  :  '  I  am  50  to-day ; 
but  thanks  to  Pears'  Soap  my  complexion  is  only 
15  '  (it  is  quite  true  that  she  had  a  complexion  like 
a  young  girl),  a  Pears'  soap  advertisement  rarely 
said  anything  of  importance  except  '  Pears'  Soap.' 
It  is  rather  a  striking  lesson  on  the  progress  of 
advertisement-making  to  compare  the  Pears'  soap 
advertising  of  the  last  twelve  months  with  that 
which  was  used  earlier.  Of  course,  the  various 
'  dodges '  of  which  Mr.  Barratt  was  fond,  operated 
in  exactly  the  same  way  as  a  simple  printing  of  the 
name.  There  was  nothing  to  make  people  admire 
the  quality  of  Pears'  soap  in  the  fact  that  he  caused 
Pears'  soap  to  be  talked  about  by  solemnly  offering 
to  print  the  census-forms  of  1891  for  nothing,  if  the 
Government  would  let  him  put  an  advertisement 
on   the   back.     The  purchase   of   Sir   John  Millais' 

^  E.g.,  *  What  is  the  diflference  between  Pears'  Soap  and  the  Arab 
steed  of  the  desert  ?  One  washes  the  beautiful ;  the  other  scours 
the  plain.' 


to  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

worst  picture,  and  of  the  amusing  *  Dirty  Boy  * 
statuette,  showed  enterprise  ;  but  they  advertised 
the  name,  not  the  goods.  The  same  is  true  of  the 
stamping  of  French  coins,  which  ceased,  as  a  result, 
to  be  current  money  in  this  country.  Everywhere? 
though  a  great  deal  was  said  about  Pears,  very  little 
else  was  said  about  soap.  Evidently  Blondeau  &  Cie 
had  an  opportunity,  which  they  used  with  great 
persistence  and  some  skill,  when  they  did  advertise 
soap,  and  used  what  is  now  called  '  reason-why 
copy,'  to  attack  the  entrenched  position  in  New 
Oxford  Street ;  but  that  position  was,  in  fact,  very 
strongly  entrenched.  Vinolia  soap  had  a  long 
struggle.  It  is  common  knowledge,  I  think,  that 
the  struggle  was  a  hard  one.  But  with  some  luck, 
and  the  advantage  of  argument  over  repetition, 
Vinolia  soap  established  itself. 

I  do  not  think  it  did  so  in  the  way  that  the 
proprietors  obviously  thought  that  it  must  establish 
itself  if  at  all ;  and  the  struggle  of  the  lion  and  the 
lamb  that  have  now  lain  down  together  (with  Lord 
Leverhulme  in  the  attractive  character  of  the  little 
child  that  leads  them)  has  only  been  recalled  at 
this  length  in  order  to  illustrate  the  real  weakness 
of  the  repetitive,  or  single-name  school  of  Advertising. 
Mr.  Barratt  advertised  Pears.  Blondeau  &  Cie 
advertised  soap.  Mr.  Barratt  did  nothing  calculated 
to  increase  the  demand  for  soap.  Any  sales  that 
he  effected  were,  in  great  part  (and  entirely,  for 
anything  that  he  did  to  the  contrary)  effected  by 
taking  business  away  from  someone  else.  But 
Blondeau  &  Cie  said  a  very  great  deal  about  the 
usefulness  of  soap.  Their  advertising  did  un- 
doubtedly increase  the  consumption  of  soap,  which 


INTRODUCTION  tt 

Pears'  publicity  did  not.  A  great  many  people, 
careful  of  their  looks,  used  to  eschew  soap  when 
washing  their  faces,  believing  it  bad  for  the  com- 
plexion. Blondeau  &  Cie  argued  that  Vinolia  Soap 
was  good  for  the  complexion.  Undoubtedly  they 
made  converts.  It  is  questionable  whether  they 
took  business  away  from  Pears'  to  any  important 
extent.  Any  variations  in  Pears'  output  was  probably 
due  to  other  causes. 

The  difference  between  modern  Advertising,  or 
the  spreading  of  information  about  goods,  and  the 
antiquated  use  of  Publicity,  or  merely  announcing 
the  name  of  a  brand,  is  precisely  this — thr.^  good 
Advertising  does  always  increase  the  total  consump- 
tion of  goods  in  the  class.  Publicity,  if  it  does  any- 
thing of  the  kind  at  all,  does  it  much  less.  In  one 
of  the  ensuing  lectures,  some  figures  are  cited,  showing 
how  Advertising  has  increased  the  total  demand  for 
cocoa  in  this  country,  and  for  tobacco  and  cigarettes 
in  the  United  States.  The  Dr.  Tibbies  Company, 
the  new  cocoa-advertiser  whose  proceedings  so 
alarmed  the  older  cocoa  houses  that  they  greatly 
increased  their  advertising  in  order  to  protect  their 
trade,  did  not  use  publicity  at  all.  Even  its  posters 
were  advertising,  in  the  strict  sense :  indeed,  it 
advertised  cocoa  as  if  cocoa  were  a  patent  medicine. 
The  increased  advertising  of  the  other  cocoas  (espe- 
cially Rowntree's)  at  first  partook  much  more  of  an 
argumentative  character  than  later  efforts. 

Advertising,  then,  has  a  creative  effect,  and  this 
effect  has  only  begun  to  be  important  in  the  more 
recent  history  of  the  business.  The  old  publicity  was 
rather  a  weapon  used  in  the  struggle  for  existing 
demand  than  a  maker  of  new  wants  other  than  those 


12  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

plainly  factitious  and  uneconomic,  like  the  desire 
for  perpetual  youth  (as  in  Graham's  Temple)  or  the 
desire  for  success  in  the  Lottery,  and  so  forth.  Modern 
Advertising,  the  Advertising  of  the  present  period, 
does  not  merely  alter  the  way  in  which  a  commodity 
is  distributed,  but  actually  causes  more  of  it  to  be 
manufactured  and  consumed.  An  incident  of  the 
process  is  that  sometimes  the  manufacturing  cost 
of  the  commodity  is  lowered,  because  the  more 
largely  anything  is  manufactured,  the  less  it  costs 
per  unit.  There  can  always  be,  as  well,  the  potential 
economies  in  distribution,  described  in  the  first 
lecture  within.  The  economic  soundness  of  the 
increased  consumption  made  possible  by  Advertising 
depends  on  the  nature  of  the  thing  advertised :  the 
community  would  not  be  enriched  if  the  advertising 
of  fireworks  caused  the  output  of  squibs  and  rockets 
to  be  doubled.  It  is  assuredly  not  being  enriched  this 
year  by  the  silly  encouragement  of  bonfire-making 
at  Peace-time,  when  the  country  is  bitterly  short 
of  fuels. 

There  is  more  in  the  question  than  this,  however. 
Setting  aside  entirely  useless  luxuries  and  wastes,  a 
great  many  commodities,  of  which  the  consumption 
has  been  increased  by  advertising,  either  are  definitely 
useful  and  reproductive,  or  contribute  to  rational 
pleasures  and  relaxations.  What  is  the  economic 
aspect  of  anything  which  increases  the  sale  of  either  ? 
Since  cocoa  has  been  used  as  an  example,  is  it  an 
economic  gain  to  the  community  that  the  consump- 
tion of  cocoa  has  been  trebled  in  the  last  quarter  of  a 
century,  or  is  it  an  evil  ? 

There  is  no  doubt  about  the  fact  that  the  quantity 
of  cocoa  consumed  since  the  big  cocoa-advertising 


INTRODUCTION  13 

began  is  greater  than  it  would  have  been,  if  cocoa  had 
not  been  thus  greatly  advertised.  Cocoa  is  a  food- 
product  :  it  tends  to  increase  weight,  create  a  certain 
amount  of  energy  in  the  human  body,  and  to  keep 
us  warm.  It  is  to  a  very  great  extent  a  worker's 
beverage,  and  probably  the  increased  quantities  of 
cocoa  consumed  did  not  very  greatly  reduce  the  con- 
sumption of  tea  and  coffee.  People  who  desire  tea 
at  a  given  time  will  commonly  have  tea  :  they  will 
not  drink  cocoa  instead.  A  little  less  coffee  may  have 
been  consumed  ;  probably  a  good  deal  less  beer. 
Workmen  who  used  to  take  a  can  of  beer  to  the 
factory  take  a  can  of  cocoa  instead.  This  is  an 
undoubted  economic  gain.  Turning  barley  into 
beer  withdraws  a  definite  amount  of  a  useful  and 
desirable  food  from  the  market,  and  thus  tends  to 
make  food  dearer.  Moreover,  if  we  accept  the 
overwhelming  weight  of  scientific  evidence,  every 
drink  of  beer  measurably  reduces  the  working 
capacity  of  the  man  who  drinks  it,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  economic  losses  resulting  from  excess  when  a 
drunkard  is  temporarily  unable  to  work  and  is 
perhaps  locked  up,  costing  the  community  money 
for  policemen,  gaolers,  magistrates,  the  rental  value 
of  prisons,  and  other  wastes.  The  pint  of  beer  that 
a  man  takes  to  the  workshop  does  not,  probably, 
contribute  very  much  to  this  loss,  which  can  be 
ignored. 

In  so  far  as  the  greater  consumption  of  cocoa 
means  a  smaller  consumption  of  beer,  however,  it 
is  an  economic  gain.  But  there  are  commodities  of 
which  the  consumption  is  increased  by  advertising 
without  raising  this  question.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
the  advertisements  of  Turog,  Hovis,  Bermaline,  Veda, 


14  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

and  other  breads,  increase  the  consumption  of  bread. 
When  the  Daily  Mail  was  running  the  '  Standard 
Bread '  agitation,  the  total  consumption  of  bread 
rose.     Was  this  an  economic  gain  ? 

It  was,  if  more  bread  was  eaten  instead  of  some 
other  food  of  a  less  sound  physiological  character,  or  if 
through  buying  more  bread,  people  who  were  under- 
nourished brought  their  dietary  up  to  the  proper 
standard.  (I  am  not  considering,  for  the  moment, 
any  advantage  gained  through  the  higher  nutritive 
value,  if  any,  of  Standard  bread  or  the  breads  adver- 
tised in  more  orthodox  ways.)  But  if  you  are  going 
to  probe  the  matter  to  the  bottom,  the  question  that 
will  have  to  be  settled  will  be  this  :  if  the  money  had 
not  been  spent  on  bread  in  the  one  case,  and  on 
cocoa  in  the  other,  on  what  would  it  have  been 
spent  ?  If  it  would  otherwise  have  been  spent  on 
fireworks,  and  other  wastes,  or  on  alcohol  and  other 
injurious  products,  the  community  gained  by  the 
money  being  spent  on  bread  and  cocoa.  If  the  only 
consequence  was  that  people  ate  more  bread  and 
cocoa  than  other  foods  and  drinks  which  are  better 
value  for  money,  the  community  was  injured.  And 
it  was  also  injured  if  money  which  otherwise  would 
have  been  kept  in  the  bank,  financing  commerce 
and  industry,  was  needlessly  spent. 

Of  course,  increases  of  consumption  due  to  Adver- 
tising are  much  less  frequent,  and  are  smaller,  in 
the  market  for  necessaries,  than  in  the  market  for 
articles  of  convenience  and  luxury.  Is  the  com- 
munity a  gainer  when  some  thousands  of  women 
get  through  their  housework  with  less  toil  because 
they  have  been  led  by  advertisements  to  purchase 
vacuum  cleaners,  Bissell  carpet-sweepers,  and  other 


INTRODUCTION  15 

labour-saving  appliances  ?  Surely  the  answer  must 
be  Yes  !  If  the  answer  were  anything  else,  we  must, 
logically,  go  back  to  the  Stone  Age.  Advertising 
has  created  a  new  want.  But  the  number  of  our 
wants  is  the  measure  of  our  civilisation.  The  luxuries 
of  one  age  are  the  necessities  of  the  next,  and  Adver- 
tising, when  it  teaches  us  to  demand  rational  and 
civilising  things,  is  a  benefit  to  the  community. 

This  point  has  been  laboured  a  little,  because 
I  showed  that  the  creation  of  entirely  new  demand 
was  the  distinctive  function  of  reasoned  advertise- 
ment. Pure  publicity,  as  I  have  defined  it,  is  still 
quite  extensively  used,  and  can  be  used  with  efficiency, 
provided  the  function  of  it  is  clearly  understood. 
Publicity  is  not  an  efficient  selling-agency  when 
it  is  made  to  carry  the  entire  burden  :  the  ratio  of 
expense  to  sales  will  then  be  too  high.  But  as  an 
adjunct  to  Advertising  proper  it  has  much  value. 
A  poster,  for  instance,  even  if  it  displays  nothing 
but  the  name  of  a  brand,  supplements  Press-advertis- 
ing, and  makes  the  latter  more  effective  by  reminding 
the  consumer  of  his  wants  when  he  is  out-of-doors 
and  the  shops  are  handy ;  and  it  also  impresses 
his  memory  through  its  powerful,  sledge-hammer 
attack  upon  the  mind.  Even  in  poster-advertising, 
the  mere  name  alone  is  being  to-day  less  and  less 
used  by  people  who  understand  how  to  advertise. 
It  is  quite  possible  to  construct  a  pictorial  argument, 
or  devise  a  picture  that  embodies  a  selling-inducement. 
The  merit  of  Mr.  John  Hassall's  designs  lies  less 
in  his  extraordinary  knack  of  depicting  expression, 
than  in  his  still  more  extraordinary  gift  of  pictorial 
salesmanship.  A  Hassall  poster  is  never  a  mere 
picture,  or  a  mere  joke,  exquisitely  ludicrous  though 


i6  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

it  often  is.     It  is  an  argument,  a  suggestion,  a  piece 
of  true  salesmanship. 

Printing  a  name  or  a  trade-mark  all  alone,  then 
— chimcsra  homhinans  in  vacuo — belongs  to  the  past  of 
Advertising.  Present-day  Advertising  sees  the  appeal 
to  reason  gaining  force.  The  big  single-name  adver- 
tisers were  driven  to  the  method  which  they  exploited, 
by  the  persistent  exaggerations  of  advertisers  who 
used  fallacious  argument  and  insincere  exposition. 
Having  proved,  during  a  period  of  over  half  a  century, 
that  it  was  better  to  say  nothing  than  to  say  what 
was  not  true,  advertisers  in  the  future  will  say  a 
great  deal  more  than  most  advertisers  say  now,  but 
will  take  great  pains  to  say  nothing  untruthful. 

There  is  still  some  difficulty  in  defining  exactly 
what  things  are  the  best  to  say  when  you  want  to 
sell  goods.  The  most  unlikely  printed  matter  some- 
times does  the  business.  Some  years  before  the  late 
War,  a  grower  of  potatoes  who  had  built  up  a  large 
trade  by  supplying  these  vegetables  directly  to 
consumers  showed  me  the  pamphlet  which  he  found 
successful  in  promoting  his  business.  His  practice  was 
to  use  quite  small  spaces  in,  I  think,  the  Daily  Graphic^ 
offering  a  sack  of  potatoes,  carriage  paid,  on  terms 
just  a  little  below  the  ordinary  greengrocer  price. 
Every  order  received  was  carefully  recorded,  and  at 
the  proper  seasons  of  the  year  all  the  people  who 
had  ordered  his  potatoes  received  the  little  book 
which  he  showed  me.  The  result  was  to  bring  him 
repeat  orders  for  all  the  potatoes  that  he  could  grow, 
and  sometimes  more.  He  had  told  me  that  he  did 
remarkably  well,  and  I  examined  the  book  with 
interest,  desiring  to  learn  what  a  clever  advertiser 
could  find  to  say  on  so  uninteresting  a  subject  as 


INTRODUCTION  17 

the  potato.  He  said  nothing  whatever  about  potatoes. 
The  book  consisted  entirely  of  a  list  of  the  names 
and  addresses  of  people  who  had  bought  potatoes  from 
him.     His  pamphlet  was  a  copy  of  his  mailing  list ! 

Having  already  seen  his  figures,  I  declined  with- 
out enthusiasm  to  advise  any  change  in  his  mode  of 
advertisement,  and  decided  that  in  all  probability 
this  book,  which  no  human  being  could  have  read 
except  the  proof-reader,  must  have  produced  the 
following  train  of  thought :  *  If  all  the  people  in 
this  long  list,  page  after  page,  are  buying  the  man's 
potatoes,  he  must  have  a  big  business.  If  he  were 
not  giving  them  good  value,  he  would  not  dare  to 
print  their  names.  Here  goes  !  Let  us  send  him 
the  money.' 

Another  advertiser  whose  evident  success  is 
much  more  difficult — I  think  impossible — to  explain 
is  the  extraordinary  Mr.  Eno.  His  pictures  never, 
and  his  text  very  seldom,  have  anything  what- 
ever to  do  with  his  goods.  Robert  Louis  Steven- 
son   called    them    (what    they    certainly   were    not) 

*  the  most  indecent  advertisements  I  have  ever 
seen '.     They  are,   on   the   contrary,   full   of   moral 

*  uplift '  and  a  sort  of  sentimental  enthusiasm  ;  but 
they  have  nothing  to  do  with  fruit  salt.  Most 
often  even  the  name  is  not  prominently  displayed, 
and  I  am  credibly  informed  that  on  one  occasion  the 
name  was  accidentally  omitted  altogether,  without 
anyone  missing  it,  and  without  any  traceable  damage 
to  the  business.  '  Bibby's  Annual ',  a  magnificent 
and  lavishly  printed  publication  which,  I  should 
think,  must  cost  Bibby  &  Co.  a  very  great  deal  more 
than  the  sale  of  it  can  return,  is  just  as  difficult  to 
understand — if  it  is  an  advertisement  at  all.     But 


i8  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

it  may  bring  results.  It  is  never  safe  to  criticise 
an  advertisement  or  a  mode  of  advertising  unless  the 
inside  facts  and  secrets  behind  it  are  known. 

The  ineptitudes  and  stupidities  which  disfigure 
a  great  proportion  of  the  newspaper  advertisements 
now  appearing  are  the  signs  of  a  transitional  period. 
Some  businesses  seem  to  exercise  a  stultifying  in- 
fluence upon  advertising.  There  is,  for  example, 
little  tobacco  or  cigarette  advertising  that  is  not 
silly,  and  some  of  it  is  worse.  But  the  tendency  is 
towards  improvement.  The  literary  work  in  a  good 
many  modern  advertisements  is  excellent,  and  the 
demand  for  good  literary  treatments  is  increasing 
every  year.  I  know  of  a  very  considerable  adver- 
tisement contract  that  was  taken  away  from  one 
agent  and  given  to  another  on  account  of  a  simple 
grammatical  blunder  ! 

The  long  vogue  of  simple  *  name '  Advertising 
led  to  a  demand  for  brevity  in  copy  which  has 
had  the  effect  of  militating  against  literary  merit. 
Putting  a  case  into  a  very  few  words  is  not  so  much 
a  literary  achievement  as  a  trick  of  thought.  It  is 
given  to  few  men  to  write  a  good  advertisement  in 
fewer  words  than  the  three  into  which  Mr.  Andrew 
W.  Tuer  thus  condensed  the  story  of  a  famous  pro- 
duct :  *  Stickphast  Paste  Sticks '.  An  advertise- 
ment in  a  single  sentence,  of  which  it  takes  an 
advertising  man  to  appreciate  the  real  brilliancy, 
said  '  Inside  the  airtight  case  of  the  5  j-.  IngersoU  Watch 
you  will  find  the  two-year  guarantee ' — or  nearly 
this ;  I  may  be  wrong  about  the  period.  Advertise- 
ments in  the  future,  as  I  shall  argue  when  I  reach 
that  part  of  the  subject,  will  be  less  brief  than  it  is 
now  usually  believed  that  they  need  to  be. 


INTRODUCTION  19 

The  real  characteristic  of  the  best  of  the  present 
day's  Advertising,  however,  is  its  insistence  on 
sincerity.  America,  as  I  said  in  the  first  of  the 
Lectures  which  follow,  has  done  a  great  deal  for  the 
betterment  of  Advertising.  No  treatment  of  this 
subject  would  be  complete,  or  could  be  just,  if  it 
did  not  pay  tribute  to  the  great  influence  of  the 
late  John  E.  Powers,  the  most  distinguished  adver- 
tising man  of  the  United  States.  What  is  called 
*  the  Powers  style  '  of  writing  and  printing  advertise- 
ments has  sometimes  obscured  the  greater  claims  of 
Mr.  Powers  to  supremacy  among  the  men  whose 
practice  has  affected  the  whole  business.  He  dis- 
liked pictures  and  display-type.  He  especially 
abhorred  a  capital  letter,  except  at  the  beginning  of 
a  sentence  or  of  a  proper  noun.  He  thought  that  one 
particular  type-face  beat  every  other  :  it  is  always 
easy  to  recognise  an  advertiser  who  has  come  under 
the  influence  of  Mr.  Powers,  by  his  plainly  printed 
letterpress  note-heading,  all  in  Caslon  old-style 
type.  Mr.  Powers  also  affected  a  jerky,  elliptical 
manner  of  writing,  which  sometimes  made  him  a 
little  difficult  to  understand ;  and  he  was  so  afraid 
lest  he  should  say  anything  about  a  product  that  he 
was  advertising,  beyond  what  was  strictly  true,  or  that 
he  should  obscure  any  of  its  defects,  that  he  some- 
times appeared  more  anxious  to  warn  the  customer 
than  to  sell  him  the  goods. 

But  his  manner,  and  even  his  mannerisms,  are 
unimportant.  It  is  likely  that  very  many  bad 
copy-writers  have  been  produced  by  an  effort  to 
imitate  the  inimitable.  The  glory  of  Mr.  Powers's 
life-work  in  Advertising  was  his  insistence  upon 
the    two    things   which    have    most    advanced    the 


20  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

business  :  sincerity  and  service.  I  did  not  know 
Mr.  Powers  and  never  saw  him.  What  I  have 
seen  of  his  work,  and  of  the  advertisers  whom  he 
influenced,  justifies  me  in  acclaiming  him  as  the 
strongest  and  most  beneficent  influence  that  modern 
Advertising  has  seen. 

The  dumb  yearning  for  a  sincerity  which  drove 
advertisers  of  the  middle  nineteenth  century  to 
the  use  of  simple  announcement  found  its  most 
clamorous  exponent  in  him.  The  desire  was  there  ; 
but  it  had  not  been  put  into  terms.  The  dilemma 
existed  :  if  we  do  not  advertise,  we  cannot  sell 
enough  goods  to  pay  the  interest  on  our  capital ;  if 
we  advertise  our  goods  according  to  current  practice, 
we  must  tell  lies  about  them.  Simple  announce- 
ment— advertising,  not  the  goods  but  the  name — 
had  been  the  only  solution.  But  presently,  in  the 
brain  of  some  commercial  genius,  was  born  the  great 
idea.  We  will  advertise  our  goods  as  well  as  our 
name  ;  but  we  won't  lie  about  the  goods.  Those 
who  adopted  the  new  policy  prepared  themselves 
for  a  sacrifice.  It  was  not  believed  to  be  quite  so 
profitable  to  tell  the  truth  as  it  was  to  lie  :  it  was 
only  right.  Probably  the  first  exponents  of  the 
modern  plan  believed  themselves  to  be  suffering 
some  little  disadvantage.  It  took  a  long  time  to 
find  out  that  they  were,  on  the  contrary,  stealing 
a  long  march  on  the  brigands. 

It  is  necessary  to  draw  a  small  distinction  here. 
Apart  from  novelties,  like  tea,  the  advertising  of  the 
eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth  century  was  mostly 
about  perfectly  useless  things.  The  factory  system, 
as  I  have  tried  to  show,  had  much  to  do  with  bringing 
staple  products  into  the  field  of  the  advertisable — 


INTRODUCTION  21 

into  the  domain,  in  fact,  of  businesses  that  must 
be  advertised  in  order  to  live.  Most  of  the  things 
advertised,  up  to  that  time,  were  poor  value.  If  you 
want  to  tell  lies  in  advertisements  you  must  provide 
a  huge  profit  to  pay  for  the  advertisements.  Every 
time  you  have  taken  anyone  in,  you  have  reduced 
your  market.  The  population  was  not  so  large  as 
it  is  now,  and  even  if  it  was  still,  as  Carlyle  said 
early  in  the  new  period,  *  mostly  fools,'  the  fools  found 
out  when  they  had  been  defrauded,  and  a  defrauded 
fool  is  a  dangerous  enemy.  But  it  is  not  only  about 
worthless,  or  nearly  worthless,  products  that  it  is 
possible  to  lie.  The  merits  of  really  sound  merchandise 
can  be  exaggerated.  One  of  the  greatest  difficulties 
of  an  advertising-man  is  to  persuade  advertisement- 
writers  that  this  exaggeration  is  not  a  help  to  sales, 
but  a  hindrance.  Progress,  at  the  present  time, 
is  along  the  line  of  eliminating  exaggeration  rather 
than  diametrical  untruthfulness.  By  the  time  Mr. 
Powers  was  making  his  influence  felt,  American 
advertisers,  at  least,  had  outgrown  the  use  of  simple 
publicity.  I  am  afraid  that  a  good  many  of  them 
were  exploiting  somewhat  hardily  the  uses  of  mis- 
representation. Advertising-reform  had  a  share  in 
cutting  out  some  other  abuses,  too.  Mr.  Wanamaker, 
a  Philadelphia  shopkeeper  who  was  an  early  employer 
of  Mr.  Powers,  created  a  great  sensation  by  being 
the  first  conspicuous  retail  merchant  to  ticket  his 
goods  in  plain  figures,  and  charge  the  same  price 
to  everyone :  previously,  the  habit  had  been  for 
the  counter-assistants  to  get  as  much  as  they  could, 
being  guided  by  a  secret  mark  showing  the  minimum. 
Mr.  Wanamaker  became  the  most  conspicuous 
advertiser   of   the   day.     One   implement   employed 


22  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

by  Mr.  Powers  had  a  psychological  idea  behind  it, 
discussed  in  one  of  the  lectures  within.^  Exaggerated 
advertisements  were,  at  the  time,  commonly  printed 
in  correspondingly  exaggerated  type.  (They  are 
much  more  commonly  printed  in  very  small  type, 
nowadays,  both  in  Britain  and  America.)  Extreme 
simplicity  of  lettering,  and  a  simplicity  of  wording 
which  later  became  even  rather  excessive,  were 
used  by  Mr.  Powers  to  suggest  the  truthfulness 
which  he  practised.^ 

Modern  commercial  Advertising  has  done  great 
service  to  business  and  the  public,  through  its  dis- 
covery that  honesty  pays.  This  service  is  made 
all  the  more  efficient  by  the  fact  that  there  is  no 
pretence  that  anyone  loses  money  by  it.  As  I  have 
said,  the  early  truth-tellers  were  prepared  for  a 
sacrifice.  They  achieved,  on  the  contrary,  an 
astounding  success.  Advertising  of  the  kind  which 
I  persistently  call  '  modern  '  is  a  great  deal  more 
profitable  than  Advertising  ever  was,  prior  to  the 
great  discovery  which  separates  its  antiquated  period 
from  modernity  with  the  same  sharpness  as  the 
invention  of  printing  marks  the  end  of  the  Middle 
Ages  in  History. 

It  is  to  be  noted,  that  the  reform  of  Advertising 
came  from  within.  The  Press,  which  makes  such 
a  parade  of  ignoring  its  greatest  source  of  revenue, 

*  Lecture  III,  p.  144. 

■  Later,  in  the  service  of  another  retailer,  he  attempted  to  establish 
a  new  business  on  the  plan  of  selling  everything,  for  a  fixed  period,  at 
its  exact  cost.  The  idea  was  a  bold  one.  The  shop  expected,  by  good 
service  and  pleasant  shopping  arrangements,  to  set  up  the  habit  of 
using  it.  I  do  not  defend  the  notion  :  personally,  I  think  this  plan 
objectionable  in  many  ways.  But  that  does  not  matter.  After  a 
little  while,  Mr.  Powers  discovered  that  his  employers  were  not  playing 
the  game.  They  were  not  seUing  at  cost  price.  He  immediately 
withdrew  his  services,  throwing  up  a  lucrative  contract,  and  letting 
everyone  know  the  reason. 


INTRODUCTION  13 

had  nothing  to  do  with  the  matter.  So  long  as 
advertisers  were  willing  to  pay  for  it,  no  lie  was  too 
outrageous  for  a  newspaper  to  print.  To-day,  in 
a  vast  majority  of  publications,  any  exaggeration 
that  is  not  visibly  and  penally  fraudulent  can  be 
inserted  without  question.  A  very  few,  led  by 
London  Opinion  under  the  advertising  management 
of  my  friend  Mr.  John  Hart,  assume  responsibility 
for  the  advertisements  which  they  insert. 

It  can  be  said  in  defence,  that  as  it  is  hardly 
practicable  for  a  publisher  to  investigate,  with 
sufficient  thoroughness  to  eliminate  every  possible 
misrepresentation,  all  the  businesses  for  which  he 
provides  advertisement-space,  he  had  better  not 
intermeddle.  In  proportion  as  he  is  known  to 
reject  advertisements  which  he  discovers  to  be 
objectionable,  he  gives  his  protection  to  all  the  others, 
which  he  admits.  As  the  public  cannot  be  protected 
to  the  uttermost,  it  is  better  that  it  shall  be  left  to 
its  own  sagacity,  and  taught  to  question  all  things. 
The  Courts  of  Justice  give  a  most  immoral  sanc- 
tion to  dishonesty,  through  the  doctrine  of  '  trade 
exaggeration,'  holding  that  a  certain  amount  of 
misrepresentation  is  to  be  expected  of  a  business 
man  :  otherwise  where  does  the  maxim,  caveat  emptor^ 
come  in  ? 

No  one,  I  think,  can  defend  this.  It  may  be 
good  law,  though  I  doubt  it.  It  is  certainly  very 
abominable  practice;  and  my  good  fortune  has 
brought  me  the  happiness  of  knowing  many  adver- 
tisers who  are  almost  fanatically  scrupulous  in 
eliminating  from  their  announcements  all  but  the 
most  unquestionable  truth.  And  the  ground  which 
they  take  is  unassailable.    After  the  habit  of  our 


24  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

nation,  they  do  not  mention  conscientious  scruples  : 
they  would  hate  like  anything  to  be  caught  moralising 
on  the  subject.  They  say,  '  We  must  be  careful  not 
to  say  the  thing  is  too  good  :  otherwise  people  will 
not  believe  us  !  '  The  hardest-headed  men  of  busi- 
ness are  precisely  those  who  insist  that  the  truth 
is  a  gold-mine,  even  if  gold-mines  are  not  always  the 
truth  when  they  appear  on  the  Stock  Exchange. 

As  already  remarked,  the  Press  had  nothing  to 
do  with  Advertising-reform.  I  do  not  complain  of 
this.  If  the  Press  believes  in  the  argument  which 
I  have  put  into  its  mouth,  above,  let  the  Press  go 
ahead,  and  live  with  it.  But  I  really  do  complain  a 
little  that  the  Press,  in  its  amazing  self-righteousness, 
should  treat  every  advertised  product  as  a  sort  of 
pariah,  or  an  indecent  subject,  whose  flagitious 
identity  must  be  veiled  by  periphrases  or  dashes, 
after  the  custom  of  authors  who  write  '  d — n,'  be- 
cause they  think  this  doesn't  look  so  wicked  as 
'  damnation.'  If,  through  some  accident,  an  adver- 
tised product  enters  into  the  news,  the  papers  will  go 
ever  so  far  round  to  avoid  naming  it  :  *  The  pro- 
prietors of  a  well-known  toilet-preparation  chartered 
a  river-steamer  at  the  boat-race.'  '  Mr.  Roscius 
Mummer  '  (there  is,  for  some  obscure  reason,  nothing 
but  good  in  dragging  in  the  name  of  an  actor)  '  ad- 
dressed the  crowd  standing  on  a  box  labelled 's 

soap.'  If  an  advertiser  really  wants  to  get  into  the 
news  columns,  he  must  either  commit  bigamy  or 
have  his  factory  burned  down. 

Until  a  few  years  ago,  not  only  advertised  goods, 
but  the  very  subject  of  Advertising  in  the  abstract, 
was  excluded  from  mention  in  any  respectably  con- 
ducted journal.     Presumably  the  idea  was  that  the 


INTRODUCTION  25 

Press  might  otherwise  be  considered  as  subservient 
to  the  commercial  influence  of  Advertising.  Fre- 
quently— most  often  in  the  columns  of  papery  which 
could  not  possibly  exist,  except  by  virtue  of  advertis- 
ing-space sold  above  its  true  value — the  notion  is 
ventilated  that  the  Press  is  muzzled  by  advertisers. 
The  paradoxical  fact  is,  that  the  Press  is  only  indepen- 
dent when  it  does  live  on  its  advertising  revenue.* 
Of  late  years,  while  showing  little  sign  of  increased 
tenderness  for  advertisers,  the  Press  has  shown  more 
respect  for  Advertising  in  itself,  ^he  Times,  during 
1904-5,  published  in  its  Financial  and  Commercial 
Supplement,  then  under  the  accomplished  editorship 
of  Mr.  F.  Harcourt  Kitchin  (afterwards  the  editor  of 
the  Glasgow  Herald,  and  now  of  the  Board  of  Trade 
Journal)  a  number  of  articles  by  myself.  They 
were  cautiously  headed  *  From  a  Correspondent,' 
and  in  them,  so  far  as  I  know  or  can  ascertain.  The 
Times,  for  the  first  time  in  its  history,  recognised 
the  existence  of  Advertising. 

Its  example  had  great  influence.  The  Press 
became  more  hospitable  to  the  subject.  References 
to,  and  articles  about.  Advertising  appeared  from 
time  to  time.  The  Evening  News  invited  me  to 
contribute  a  long  series  intituled  *  The  Curious  Side 
of  Advertising,'  afterwards  reprinted,  through  the 
kind  permission  of  the  Editor,  by  Mr.  Walter  Hill. 
Later  still,  a  movement  to  '  Advertise  Advertising ' 
was  initiated  by  some  members  of  the  now  famous 
Aldwych  Club,  and  a  considerable  number  of  news- 
papers gave  space  for  displayed  advertisements, 
addressed  to  the  public,  and  setting  forth  the  ad- 
vantages to  be  derived  from  the  purchase  of  adver- 
*  Vide  Appendix,  p.  289. 


26  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

tised  goods.  A  small  space,  similarly  employed, 
appears  every  week  in  London  Opinion,  and  the 
same  device  was  adopted  by  Mr.  Philip  Emanuel 
after  he  left  that  paper  to  become  advertisement 
manager  of  the  Passing  Show, 

But,  as  I  have  said,  the  Press  has  not  in  general 
been  a  pioneer  of  Advertising-reform.  Improve- 
ments in  Advertising  have  come  from  within. 
Service,  the  second  great  advance  and  the  most 
modern,  also  came  from  within.  It  may  be  defined 
as  the  product  of  that  spirit  in  commerce  which 
refuses  to  be  satisfied  with  the  profit  derived  from  a 
business  transaction,  unless  the  other  party  to  that 
transaction  derives  a  full  measure  of  benefit.  It  is 
the  spirit  of  a  seller's  *  divine  discontent '  when  the 
buyer  is  not  a  gainer  by  his  purchase.  It  is  the 
antithesis  of  the  spirit  in  salesmanship  which  regarded 
the  buyer  as  the  victim  of  the  seller.  It  goes  far 
beyond  supplementing  the  mere  transfer  of  owner- 
ship in  an  advertised  commodity  with  some  other 
act  or  gift  '  given  away  with  a  pound  of  tea.' 
'  Service,'  it  will  be  seen,  is  a  rather  elusive  thing. 
Mr.  Selfridge's  rest-rooms  and  other  conveniences, 
the  dining-car  accommodation  on  trains,  the 
temporary  free  tunings  included  in  the  price  of  a 
piano,  the  privilege  of  having  the  remaining  instal- 
ments waived  if  you  die  while  paying  by  the  month 
for  furniture  bought  of  certain  firms,  and  similar 
gratuitous  amenities,  are  all  *  service.'  But  in  its 
best  sense,  the  word  means  far  more  than  doing 
something  to  make  a  purchase  more  attractive.  It 
means  treating  the  whole  relation  of  seller  to  buyer 
as  including  the  obligation  to  give  the  buyer  the 
completest  and  most  justified  satisfaction.     If  you 


INTRODUCTION  27 

happen  to  own  a  Kodak,  the  company  which  manu- 
factures the  most  famous  of  all  photographic 
appliances  will,  at  any  of  its  numerous  branches, 
take  any  amount  of  trouble  to  improve  the  results 
obtained  with  it.  This  is  *  service.'  Sales-managers 
call  that  kind  of  post-sale  treatment  '  keeping  the 
goods  sold,'  and  the  system  goes  beyond  any  case 
where  the  contract  of  sale  provides  for  the  return  of 
the  money  if  the  buyer  repents  of  his  bargain. 

A  great  deal  of  modern  salesmanship  by  advertise- 
ment includes  the  '  money-back '  system,  and  this 
is  a  form  of  '  service.'  Three  very  conspicuous 
examples  of  it  in  this  country  have  been  Fels-naptha 
soap,  Brooke  Bond's  tea  (both  under  the  influence 
of  Mr.  Powers),  and  the  large  mail-order  business  in 
cigars  of  my  friend  Mr.  Walter  Martin. 

Money-back  trading  is  undoubtedly  ^  service.' 
So  is  the  plan  on  which,  following  the  *  Encyclopaedia 
Britannica'  scheme,  costly  works  of  reference  arc 
constantly  sent  '  on  approval '  before  the  applicant 
commits  himself  to  a  purchase  :  so,  indeed,  is  instal- 
ment-selling in  itself.  There  is  no  doubt  an  easy 
psychological  explanation  of  the  success  with  which 
approval  and  money-back  selling  appeal  to  the 
public  purse.  If  the  seller  is  willing  to  back  his 
recommendation  thus  thoroughly,  the  recommenda- 
tion becomes  more  credible. 

It  is  much  easier  to  use  this  psychological  appeal 
where  the  advertiser  trusts  the  public  instead  of 
asking  the  public  to  trust  him.  The  enormous 
success  of  the  first  '  Encyclopaedia  Britannica '  cam- 
paign was  due  to  Mr.  H.  E.  Hooper's  unshakeable 
and  still  unshaken  belief  in  the  public.  '  I  am 
certain,'  he  said  to  me,  *  that  95  per  cent,  of  the 


28  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

people  are  honest,'  and  the  collection-figures  in  all 
his  bookselling  campaigns  proved  his  estimate 
arithmetically  correct.^ 

In  so  far  as  it  is  able  to  reduce  the  price  of  com- 
modities (my  first  Lecture  is  almost  entirely  devoted 
to  proofs  and  examples  of  this),  Advertising  has  an 
implicit  element  of  Service.  Obviously  the  advertiser 
makes  a  profit  by  retaining  part  of  the  economy. 
It  would  be  unreasonable  to  expect  him  not  to  do 
so.  He  is  entitled  to  pay  himself  for  his  risk  and 
for  his  investment.  Where  he  obtains  more  than 
an  ordinary  competitive  profit,  it  is  because  he  is 
able  to  create  a  more  or  less  temporary  monopoly 
in  a  new  product,  or  because  consumers  are  willing 
to  pay  a  little  more  for  a  guarantee  of  standardised 
quality.  If  this  product  is  of  real  utility,  who  shall 
say  that  consumers  do  not  derive  more  advantage 
from  it,  even  at  the  somewhat  artificial  price  which 
pays  for  the  expense  of  introducing  it  to  them,  than 
they  would  from  saving  the  money  and  going  without 
it  altogether  ?  If  the  thing  is  worth  having,  the 
advertising  of  it  is  a  service  to  them. 

By  making  itself  useful  to  the  public,  and  by 
treating  the  public  fairly,  commercial  Advertising 
has,  by  degrees,  established  for  itself  a  position  from 
which  it  is  unlikely  to  be  dislodged.  That  the 
Advertising  of  the  future  will  resemble  in  its  outward 
manifestations  that  of  the  present  day  is  extremely 
improbable.  Dr.  Johnson  thought  that  Advertising 
had,  in  his  own  day,  reached  such  perfection  that 
improvement  was  hardly  possible.  Had  Dr.  Johnson 
been  an  advertising-man,  he  might  have  been  humbler 

*  Some  details  of  Mr.  Hooper's  book-advertising  enterprises  are 
given  in  the  sixth  Lecture.     Vide  infra,  p.  217  et  seq. 


INTRODUCTION  29 

in  his  expectations  ;  perhaps  he  would  have  been 
less  severe  in  his  criticisms.^ 

There  is  no  doubt  in  my  own  mind  about  the 
direction  in  which  improvement  will  be  achieved. 
Looking  backward  to  1850,  or  thereabouts,  one  sees 
that  violent  displays  of  different  kinds  gradually 
gave  place  to  more  restrained  topography,  ugliness 
being  abandoned  as  a  method  of  attracting  attention, 
for  elegance  and  even  beauty.  It  is  to  be  remarked 
that  prejudices  die  extremely  hard.  Because  there 
was  a  great  deal  of  dishonest  advertising  in  the 
eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth  centuries  people 
still  retain  a  certain  distrust  of  statements  in  an 
advertisement.  Because  advertisements  in  the  Vic- 
torian period  were  seldom  good  to  look  at,  the  word 
'  hideous  '  attaches  itself  mechanically  to  the  word 
*  advertisement '  like  the  characteristic  adjectives 
of  the  Roman  poets,  to  whom  -^neas  was  always 
pius  and  Achates  fidus.  It  can  no  more  shake  off 
its  conventional  epithet  than  they. 

A  comparison  of  the  advertisements  in  a  news- 
paper or  periodical  of  to-day  with  those  half  a  century 
ago  will  show  great  improvement,  but  the  greatest 
improvement  has  been  in  posters.  The  advertising 
value  of  the  poster  is  greatly  under-estimated  at  the 
present  time.  Relatively  few  advertisers  have  ever 
used  posters  at  all.  They  are  by  far  the  cheapest 
medium  of  publicity.  The  comparative  expense 
of  the  same  predominance  among  large  advertisers 

1  '  Advertisements  are  now  so  numerous  that  they  are  very 
neghgently  perused,  and  it  is  therefore  becoming  necessary  to  gain 
attention  by  magnificence  of  promises  and  by  eloquence  sometimes 
sublime  and  sometimes  pathetick.  Promise,  large  promise,  is  the 
soul  of  an  advertisement.  I  remember  a  washball  that  had  a  quality 
truly  wonderful — it  gave  an  exquisite  edge  to  the  razor  !  The  trade 
of  advertising  is  now  so  near  to  perfection  that  it  is  not  easy  to  propose 
any  improvement.' — rA# /<i/«r,  January  20,  1759. 


30  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

on  the  hoardings  or  in  the  Press  is  about  as  1:4; 
which  is  to  say,  that  to  be  the  unmistakably  most 
conspicuous  advertiser  of  the  day  in  the  newspapers 
would  cost  about  four  times  as  much,  at  a  given  time, 
as  to  be  with  equal  unmistakableness  the  most 
conspicuous  advertiser  on  the  bill-boards.^ 

Before  allowing  oneself  to  be  carried  away  by  the 
unthinking  reprobation  of  posters  as  hideous  and 
sometimes  *  indecent,'  it  is  desirable  to  consider  for 
a  moment  just  what  posters  are,  and  what  is  their 
effect  upon  the  appearance  of  the  streets.  (I  neither 
attempt  nor  desire  to  defend  advertisements  in  rural 
surroundings,  except  by  the  remark  that  when  a 
piece  of  country  has  a  railway  running  through  it, 
it  is  already  so  '  desecrated '  that  nothing  in  the 
world  can  make  it  much  worse.)  The  poster  is  a 
victim  of  constant  misunderstanding.  It  is  mis- 
understood by  advertisers  :  they  blame  it  unjustly 
for  its  costliness.  It  is  misunderstood  by  designers  : 
they  think  that  a  poster  is  either  a  picture  or  a  joke, 
whereas  it  is  neither,  but  a  selling-implement.  It 
is  misunderstood  by  the  public  and  condemned  for 
its  hideousness  and  immodesty.  Now  billposters 
are  the  only  advertising-men  who  have  organised 
themselves  for  the  express  purpose  of  keeping  their 
business  clean.  Any  poster  which  sails  anywhere 
near  the  wind  is,  either  in  respect  of  honesty  or 
propriety,  considered  by  a  most  prudish  board  of 
censors.  I  have  seen  many  designs  that  were 
condemned ;  and  a  Presbyterian  Sabbath-school  com- 

*  This  estimate  takes  into  account  both  printing  and  display.  It 
used  to  cost  on  the  average  somewhere  about  four  and  a  half  times  as 
much  to  post  a  reasonable  display  of  posters  as  to  print  them  ;  but 
the  cost  of  printing  the  bills  has  risen  enormously  during  the  War, 
and  is  not  hkely  to  fall.  Billposting  has  risen  comparatively  httle 
in  cost — only  about  30  to  35  per  cent. 


INTRODUCTION  31 

mittee  must  be  rather  a  skittish  body  of  people 
compared  with  that  whose  modesty  was  shocked  by 
some  of  the  designs  which  have  been  turned  down. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  some 
posters  are  still  rather  ugly.  So  are  99  per  cent, 
of  the  statues  in  this  London  of  ours.  So  are  a  great 
many  farm-buildings  and  country  public-houses.  And 
very  much  more  hideous,  incomparably  more  hideous 
than  the  worst  hoardingful  of  bad  posters,  are  the 
derelict  plots  of  waste  ground  awaiting  the  builder 
in  every  large  city,  and  the  strips  of  land  which  for 
one  reason  or  another  builders  cannot  use,  and  which 
are  fortunately  hidden  by  the  hoardings.  No  one 
demands  in  the  name  of  aesthetic  purity  that  the 
statues,  farm-buildings,  and  village  pubs  be  torn 
down  ;  but  certain  ill-balanced  minds  do  demand 
that  the  waste  land,  with  its  harvest  of  empty 
tomato-tins,  old  bricks,  and  dead  cats,  be  bared  to 
the  delighted  gaze. 

A  great  deal  might  be  done  to  improve  posters. 
Printing-inks  might  be  better  chosen :  what  a  taste- 
ful choice  is  able  to  do  was  seen,  this  Spring,  in  the 
delightful  blue  and  yellow  poster,  containing  only 
letters,  of  the  Government's  '  National  Saving ' 
announcement.  If  the  neutral  borders  called  by 
billposters  '  blanking,'  were  always  used,  setting 
each  poster  apart  in  a  space  of  its  own,  and  if 
advertisers    would    keep    to    standard    dimensions,^ 

1  The  conventional  unit  of  '  crown  '  paper,  15  inches  by  20  inches, 
has  been  all  but  uniformly  adopted :  poster-sizes  being  made  up  in 
multiples  of  the  double  crown,  20  inches  by  30  inches.  Whether  the 
bills  are  printed  in  the  upright  direction  or  (in  billposters'  language) 
*  broadside,'  the  use  of  a  regular  unit  enables  posting  stations  to  be 
covered  neatly,  instead  of  carrying  a  variety  of  different- shaped  bills 
fitted  into  each  other.  The  four-sheet  double  crown,  40  inches  by 
60  inches,  the  eight-sheet,  60  inches  by  80  inches,  the  sixteen-sheet, 
80  inches  by  1 20  inches , and  the  thirty-two  sheet,  1 20  inches  by  1 60  inches. 


32  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

instead  of  using  all  shapes  and  sizes,  the  confused 
and  uncomely  appearance  of  a  crowded  hoarding 
would  be  avoidable.  Poster  advertising  is  not 
perfect ;    but  it  is  not  so  black  as  it  is  painted. 

In  the  Advertising  of  the  future — and  this  is  my 
excuse  for  this  digression  about  billposting— the 
poster  will  perhaps  be  the  only  mode  in  which  '  dis- 
play '  will  be  common.  To  put  the  thing  more 
academically,  we  shall  have  very  little  '  Publicity ' 
and  a  great  deal  more  '  Advertising.'  ^  Purchasing 
as  the  result  of  publicity  is  an  irrational  act.  Even 
the  most  casual  analysis  of  its  psychology^  shows 
it  to  be  motiveless  and  mechanical,  the  effect  of  an 
instinctive  gesture  which  shirks  real  discrimination. 
Publicity  of  the  simple  name  is  made  less  mechanical 
and  lifeless  when  the  name  is  always  associated  with 
the  catch-phrase  used  as  a  '  slogan.'  Next  in  the 
order  of  intelligence — but  still  keeping  within  the 
domain  of  strict  publicity — comes  the  association 
of  the  name  with  an  ever-changing  succession  of 
different  irrelevant  catch-phrases.  It  would  be  an 
abuse  of  language  to  call  this  kind  of  enunciation  an 
argument.  The  appeal  is  to  something  other  than 
reasoned  thought  :    to  say,   *  If   men's   consciences 

offer  a  choice  of  sizes  to  suit  all  requirements — the  smallest  being 
capable  of  accommodation  wherever  there  are  posting-stations  at  all, 
the  largest  forming  a  display  big  enough  for  any  reasonable  ambition. 
Blanking,  which  keeps  posters  apart,  not  only  adds  enormously  to 
the  value  of  a  design,  but  prevents  a  clash  of  colours  often  distressful 
to  the  eye  where  one  bill  is  posted  in  contact  with  another.  It  also, 
incidentally,  enables,  in  certain  situations,  a  smaller  poster  to  be  used 
than  would  otherwise  be  required.  An  advertiser  often  finds  it  im- 
possible to  use  in  the  small  towns  and  villages  bills  of  the  size  required 
to  attract  attention  in  larger  cities.  If  the  size  of  his  campaign  would 
make  it  extravagant  to  print  two  bills,  a  large  and  a  small,  he  can 
sometimes  obtain  a  satisfactory  result  by  blanking-out  a  small  one 
to  a  larger  size. 

1  Publicity  is  a  mere  announcement  of  goods  ;  to  advertise  a  thing 
is  to  disseminate  knowledge  of  facts  about  it.     See  Lecture  V.,  p.  182. 

*  Vide  injra,  p.  4  et  seq. 


INTRODUCTION  33 

were  visible,  Sapolio  would  clean  even  them,'  is  mere 
banter.  The  best  modern  advertisements  do  not 
tell  the  reader  that  the  manufacturer  or  merchant 
has  a  high  opinion  of  his  wares.  They  tell  him 
physical  facts  about  the  wares,  or  present  him  with 
reasons  for  buying  them.  They  approach,  not  his 
indolence,  but  his  reasoning  faculty,  at  the  same 
time  often  using  one  device  or  another  for  catching 
his  attention  unawares. 

Observe,  however,  that  if  we  start  from  simple- 
name  publicity,  the  order  of  evolution  is  what  I  have 
described  above.  Logically  the  next  step  is  to  discard 
by  degrees  factitious  and  irrelevant  eye-catchers, 
and  treat  the  public  seriously.  A  pretty  girl  in  some 
rather  risky  attitude  will  soon  no  longer  be  the  illustra- 
tion chosen  for  advertising  cigarettes  on  the  ground 
that  men  are  likely  to  look  at  that  sort  of  picture, 
and  while  looking  may  notice  the  name  of  the  goods. 
The  reader  will,  instead,  be  told  something  interesting 
and  relevant,  and  if  a  picture  is  used,  it  will  illustrate 
the  argument. 

Of  course,  it  would  be  absurd  to  pretend  that 
everything  except  serious  and  probably  rather  burden- 
some argumentation  will  disappear  from  advertise- 
ments. What  will  happen  is  that  advertisements 
will  acquire  such  interest  and  a  sprightliness  that 
they  will  not  be  '  negligently  perused  '  (as  by  Dr. 
Johnson),  but  gladly  read  for  their  own  sake.  The 
reader  will  not  then  be  attracted  by  the  foolish 
irrelevancies  now  in  fashion.  He  will  have  out- 
grown them.  By  what  devices  will  he  be  attracted  ? 
He  will  be  attracted  by  the  raised  standard  of  interest 
and  usefulness  in  advertisements  generally,  and  some- 
times by  the  reputation  of  their  authors.     Advertising 


34  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

that  has  no  public  usefulness — advertising  that  is 
not  '  service  ' — is  bound  to  disappear  at  the  same 
time  that  the  public  becomes  intelligent  enough  to 
require  something  besides  mere  silliness  to  induce 
it  to  read  a  commercial  announcement. 

Even  now  the  public  does  not  require  a  great 
deal  of  persuasion  if  advertisers  will  only  take 
the  trouble  to  make  advertisement-reading  worth 
while.  The  solid  wad  of  advertisements  all  packed 
close  together  in  the  Strand  Magazine  or  Nash^s  do 
not  attract  the  eye  by  proximity  to  reading-matter. 
The  reader  must  turn  deliberately  to  them.  That 
he  does  so  is  proved  beyond  question  by  evidence 
internal  and  implicit.  Mail-order  advertisements, 
the  results  of  which  not  only  can,  but  must,  be 
strictly  ascertained,  insertion  by  insertion,  appear 
regularly  in  large  numbers  in  popular  magazines. 
Punch  has  not  only  gained  in  efficiency  as  an 
advertising  medium  with  the  gradual  increase  in  the 
number  of  advertisement  pages  :  but  it  has  also 
gained  circulation.^ 

The  examples  of  Punch  and  the  magazines  (for 
what  is  true  of  NasFs  Magazine  and  the  Strand  is 
also  more  or  less  true  of  the  other  popular  monthlies) 
prove  that  the  public  will  go  out  of  the  way  to  read  ad- 

1  I  do  not  pretend  that  the  circulation  of  Punch  has  been  increased 
through  the  large  number  of  handsome  and  well-balanced  pages  of 
advertising  which  it  contains  j  but  it  is  very  evident  that  its  purchasers 
are  not  offended  by  these :  first,  because,  so  far  from  giving  up  Punch, 
they  increase  in  number,  which  can  only  mean  that  they  recommend 
it  to  other  people  j  and,  secondly,  because  they  do  most  undoubtedly 
buy  the  goods  advertised  in  Punch.  When  I  was  at  The  Times,  the 
late  Mr.  Walter  was  rather  alarmed  by  the  increase  in  displayed 
advertising.  '  We  shall  lose  subscribers,  if  this  kind  of  thing  goes 
on,'  he  said  to  me.  The  circulation  figures  of  The  Times  have  since, 
for  the  only  time  in  its  history,  been  published  :  and  they  showed 
that  during  this  period,  when  the  paper  contained  a  greater  quantity 
of  displayed  advertisements  than  ever  before,  its  circulation  was  steadily 
creeping  up. 


INTRODUCTION  35 

vertisements,  if  these  are  made  sufficiently  attractive ; 
and  the  standard  of  merit  in  copy  is  always  high 
in  these  publications.  Another  example,  explained 
at  some  length  in  the  fourth  Lecture,^  exhibits  the 
unusual  phenomenon  of  people  actually  buying  a 
paper  for  the  sake  of  the  advertisements  which  it 
alone  published.  This  phenomenon  will  be  repeated 
in  the  future  history  of  Advertising. 

At  least  two  devices  already  invented,  and  others 
which  increasing  attention  to  salesmanship  speaking 
with  the  voice  of  the  printed  word  must  from  time 
to  time  produce,  will  contribute  to  this.  The  two 
already  invented  are  the  use  of  colour,  and  that  very 
important  innovation,  the  signed  advertisement. 

Colour  in  Advertising  is  a  very  simple  subject. 
Every  improvement  or  alteration  in  printing  processes 
leads  to  some  development  in  advertising  display. 
For  a  great  many  years  before  colour  was  so  employed 
as  to  have  any  real  value  to  them  in  press  announce- 
ments, advertisers  were  hankering  after  some  addition 
to  the  plain  black  and  white  of  the  newspaper.  A 
few  papers  tried  an  attachment  to  the  rotary  press 
capable  of  inking  some  lines  of  the  type  with  red  or 
blue,  in  the  same  way  as  evening  papers  now  some- 
times carry  a  useless  smudge  of  colour  on  the  front 
page  to  mark  the  alleged  time  of  the  edition.  (By 
this  means  the  practised  buyer  is  able  to  reject, 
after  about  5  o'clock,  anything  dated  earlier  than 
6.30.)  But  the  crude  effects  obtained  by  advertisers 
from  the  colour-attachment  in  the  country  papers 
which  used  it  were  not  encouraging.  The  printing 
was  ugly  and  crude  enough,  without  this  added 
horror.     Weekly  papers  in  the  sixpenny  class  were 

iPage  173. 


36  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

the  first  to  print  a  back  cover  in  the  two  colours  used 
for  the  front.  Presently,  as  half-tone  colour-printing 
became  easier,  photographic  engraving  processes 
enabled  an  advertiser  to  have  a  full-colour  picture 
on  the  back  page  of  some  weeklies.  Earlier,  the 
only  way  to  have  a  coloured  press  advertisement 
was  to  print  an  inset :  and  insets  were  and  are 
practically  confined  to  the  monthly  magazines.^ 

It  is  only  a  question  of  time,  before  even  papers 
printed  at  high  speed  and  in  great  numbers  will  be 
able  to  use  colour  acceptably.  Civilisation  will  not 
long  tolerate  the  horrible  printing  now  thought  good 
enough  for  the  public  in  daily  papers.  Sooner  or 
later,  and  in  any  case,  before  a  great  many  years, 
the  magnificent  craftsmanship  by  which  the  Saturday 
Evening  Post  (a  Philadelphia  weekly  founded  by 
Benjamin  Franklin)  prints  an  edition  of  over  two 
million  copies  on  super-calendered  paper  ^  with 
vignetted  half-tone  illustrations  and  numerous 
advertisement  pages  in  colours,^  will  be  applied 
to  the  production  of  daily  papers.  In  the  meantime, 
several  high-priced  English  weeklies  contain  advertise- 
ments in  colour,  printed  as  part  of  the  regular  edition. 

*  They  created  some  difficulty.  A  magazine  which  accepted  insets 
would  often  be  one  that  concealed  its  circulation.  As  the  insets  were 
printed  and  supplied  by  the  advertiser,  these  magazines  were  faced 
by  a  dilemma.  If  they  refused  to  say  how  many  insets  they  could  use, 
they  would  lose  the  business.  If  they  gave  this  information,  there 
was  no  way  to  keep  the  secret  of  the  circulation.  Some  of  them  did 
keep  it ;  and  the  late  Mr.  Barratt  used  often  to  publish,  in  the  'nineties, 
small  classified  advertisements  offering  a  reward  for  any  Pears'  Soap 
insets  of  which  embarrassed  publishers  were  trying  to  rid  themselves, 
having  lied  about  their  circulation  and  robbed  A.  &  F.  Pears  by 
wasting  costly  insets  to  avoid  being  caught. 

*  That  is,  highly  glazed  paper,  without  the  clay  surface  used  for 
what  are  rather  dubiously  known  as  *  art '  papers,  and  used  for  half- 
tone printing. 

3  The  Saturday  Evening  Post  has  not,  at  the  time  of  writing,  con- 
tained an  advertisement  illustrated  by  the  three-colour  photographic 
process. 


INTRODUCTION  37 

In  the  very  early  future,  Press-advertising  will  make 
great  use  of  colour  in  this,  the  only  efficient  way. 
There  will,  of  course,  also  be  continuous  improvements 
in  block-making,  and  advertisers  will  be  able  to  use 
illustrations  far  excelling  those  which  now  (as  has 
been  amusingly  said)  '  put  the  eyes  into  Advertising.' 
Whether  in  colours  or  black  and  white,  better 
pictures  will  undoubtedly  be  one  feature  of  attraction 
for  advertisement-readers.  During  the  last  ten  years 
or  so  the  use  of  drawings  by  artists  of  reputation  has 
been  increasingly  frequent.  Mr.  Fred  Pegram,  Mr. 
Bernard  Partridge,  and  other  well-known  men  have 
crossed  the  line  which  used  to  separate  art  from 
advertisement,  and  have  done  good  service  to  both. 
Even  when  they  did  not  sign  their  work,  they  could 
not  prevent  its  being  recognisable.  An  artist 
cannot  conceal  his  individuality  so  effectively  as  an 
author  :  the  author  has  more  strings  to  his  lyre  ; 
his  art  is  greatly  more  complex,  his  implement  more 
flexible,  his  material  richer  and  more  varied.  When 
(as  sometimes  happens)  an  author  of  reputation 
equal  to  that  of  the  two  artists  whom  I  have  named 
as  examples  writes  an  advertisement  anonymously, 
few,  if  any,  readers  can  identify  him  with  the  same 
certainty  as  thousands  can  identify  the  workmanship 
of  a  picture.  There  are  still  literary  experts  who 
profess  to  believe  that  Bacon  wrote  the  plays  of 
Shakespeare,  and  a  great  many  who  are  not  quite  sure 
how  much  of  '  Pericles '  (if  any)  was  written  by  the 
author  with  whose  works  it,  and  '  Titus  Andronicus ' 
too,  are  habitually  bound.  It  is  not  surprising, 
therefore,  that  the  authorship  of  an  advertisement 
is  not  always  self-evident.  In  practice,  the  work  of 
an   advertisement-writer    is    more    often   recognised 


38  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

by  his  fellow-workers  through  typographical  arrange- 
ment than  through  literary  style. 

Occasionally,  in  the  recent  past,  something  has 
happened  which  I  believe  destined  to  happen  very 
often  in  the  future  :  and  that  is,  that  advertisements 
have  been  openly  signed.  I  do  not  mean  that  they 
will  be  very  often  signed  by  writers  who  have  a 
literary  reputation,  as  illustrations  to  advertise- 
ments are  signed  or  made  recognisable  by  draughts- 
men who  have  an  artistic  reputation.  It  is  more 
likely,  and  certainly  more  desirable,  that  advertise- 
ment-writers of  character  and  talent  should  acquire 
a  reputation  with  the  public  for  their  own  work. 
A  professional  advertisement-writer  ought  to  be  able 
to  write  with  ease  better  advertisements  than  those 
produced  by  the  most  brilliant  amateur  whose 
literary  talent  has  not  been  trained  to  the  uses  of 
commerce.  What  publishers  call  a  '  name '  has, 
and  ought  to  have,  a  great  influence  with  the  public. 
An  author  whose  work  has  proved  interesting  or 
instructive  obtains  a  following.  Why  should  not 
advertisement-writers  who  prove  by  their  practice 
that  they  will  not  uphold  an  unworthy  or  a  dishonest 
business,  and  that  they  can  write  interestingly 
and  usefully  about  products  which  the  public  needs, 
obtain  a  similar  following  ?  I  am  acquainted  with 
advertisers  to  whom  signed  advertisements  of  various 
kinds  have  undoubtedly  brought  a  great  deal  of 
business  :  I  know  one,  in  particular,  whose  turnover 
was  unquestionably  doubled  by  a  single  piece  of 
printed  matter  bearing  the  author's  name.  A  signed 
announcement,  either  in  the  Press  or  elsewhere,  has  an 
unsuspected  degree  of  commercial  efficiency.  In  the 
advertising  of  the  future,  when  advertisers  in  general 


INTRODUCTION  39 

will  have  become  aware  of  this  fact,  signed  advertise- 
ments will  become  much  commoner  than  they  are 
now,  and,  by  degrees,  the  names  of  advertisement- 
writers  who  can  be  relied  on  to  produce  interesting 
and  useful  copy  will  be  remembered  by  the  public. 

Let  me  make  quite  clear  this  matter  of  the  signed 
advertisement  which  will,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  be  a 
leading  feature  of  future  Advertising.  Signed  adver- 
tisements will  not  be  what  are  called  testimonials, 
any  more  than  the  speech  of  an  advocate  defending  a 
prisoner  is  heard  by  judge  or  jury  as  if  it  were  a  part 
of  the  evidence.  Counsel's  addresses  are  not  evidence ; 
they  are  only  expositions  and  interpretations  of 
evidence.  Only  to  a  very  limited  extent  does  a 
barrister's  personal  honour  enter  into  consideration  : 
it  is  taken  for  granted  that  he  will  not  play  tricks 
with  the  Court,  or  seek  to  hoodwink  the  Jury  by 
*  opening '  evidence  that  he  is  not  prepared  to 
produce  in  the  witness-box.  But  he  is  not  expected 
to  tell  the  Bench  that  the  prisoner's  personality 
is  not  to  his  taste.  Similarly,  an  advertisement- 
writer  will  not  be  more  identified  with  the  advertiser's 
interest,  than  a  barrister  with  his  client's  case  :  to 
put  the  point  specifically,  he  could  quite  legitimately 
describe  the  excellence  with  which  cigarettes  of  a 
given  brand  were  made,  and  the  care  with  which  the 
leaf  was  selected  and  prepared,  though  he  himself 
smoked  a  pipe  while  he  wrote,  and  personally  abhorred 
cigarettes  of  any  kind.^ 

^  At  the  same  time,  if  he  believed  cigarette-smoking,  or  smoking 
in  general,  to  be  injurious  or  demoralising,  a  tender  conscience  would 
forbid  him  to  profit  by  recommending  the  practice.  There  are  ad- 
vertising men  to-day  who  will  not  handle  the  account  of  a  distiller  or 
any  producer  of  alcohol.  Money-lenders'  advertisements  are  decUned 
by  many  newspapers.  It  is  regrettable  that  bookmakers'  advertise- 
ments are  accepted  by  any  newspaper ;  and  the  time  will  come  when 
these,  too,  will  be  rejected. 


40  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

And  this  point  of  view  illustrates  precisely  another 
characteristic  of  advertisenfent-copy  in  the  future, 
whether  it  is  signed  or  not.  There  are  abundant 
indications  already  of  the  coming  change.  Advertising 
of  the  past  and  present  has  been  altogether  too  much 
concerned  with,  as  I  put  it  in  one  of  these  lectures, 
telling  the  public  what  the  advertiser  thinks  of  his 
goods.  Advertising  in  the  future  will  be  a  great  deal 
more  concerned  with  telling  the  public  facts  about 
the  goods,  by  the  aid  of  which  the  public  can  make 
up  its  mind  whether  to  purchase  the  goods  or  not  : 
and  advertisers  (with  '  service  '  more  and  more  in 
mind)  will  not  wish  anyone  to  purchase  goods  that 
are  not  likely  to  give  him  satisfaction  and  advantage. 
Thus,  there  will  be  nothing  invidious  about  the 
position  of  an  advertisement-writer  who  signs  his 
work.  He  will  not  be  publishing  his  opinion  of  the 
product  advertised.  He  will  present,  in  the  most 
attractive  way  that  he  can,  the  facts  about  it. 

Will  future  Advertising  be  concerned  with  certain 
things  now  considered  to  be  improper  subjects  of 
advertisement  ?  Will  doctors,  lawyers,  and  other 
professional  men  and  women,  advertise  ?  This  opens 
up  a  wide  field  of  speculation.  Objections  against 
the  advertising  of  professional  services  are,  pre- 
sumably, based  on  two  considerations.  The  first  is 
that,  as  Advertising  was  and  is,  nothing  could  restrain 
an  unscrupulous  doctor  or  lawyer  from  publishing 
false  claims  to  professional  competence.  The  second 
consideration  is,  that  a  professional  man's  success 
might  be  determined,  not  so  much  by  his  skill, 
as  by  the  amount  of  money  at  his  disposal.  The  son 
of  a  rich  man,  when  he  began  to  practise,  and  before 
he  had  had  time  to  gain  experience,  could  command 


.     INTRODUCTION  4I 

a  certain  amount  of  work  by  advertising  himself 
with  his  father's  money.  And  it  is  rightly  urged 
in  support  of  both  objections,  that  the  public  is 
much  more  injured  by  employing  second-rate  pro- 
fessional services,  than  by  buying  goods  that  are  not 
quite  up  to  the  mark.  Thus,  it  is  said,  that  although 
the  improved  standard  of  advertising-morality  must 
moderate  the  claims  of  professional  men  who  adver- 
tised, the  handicap  suffered  by  a  man  of  real  genius 
who  was  poor  would  operate  to  the  disadvantage 
of  the  public,  if  this  advertising  were  permitted. 

The  fact  that,  as  things  are,  the  public  is  not  com- 
pletely safeguarded,  does  not  make  any  difference. 
In  any  event,  a  rich  man,  starting  professional 
practice,  has  much  more  prospect  of  success  than  a 
poor  man  of  equal  ability.  A  barrister  whose  father's 
solicitors  have  a  big  business  (or  who  '  falls  in  love 
with  a  rich  attorney's  elderly,  ugly  daughter  ')  has  an 
opportunity  to  show  what  he  is  worth.  A  young 
surgeon  whose  father  is  an  eminent  consultant  can 
have  a  great  many '  cases  '  put  in  his  way,  and,  if 
competent,  will  soon  be  independent  of  the  paternal 
patronage.  A  much  cleverer  orphan,  in  the  same 
profession,  would  have  to  wait  years  for  his  chance. 
But  that  is  no  reason  why  a  wealthy  incompetent 
should  be  permitted  to  gain  his  experience  at  the 
expense  of  the  public,  and  perhaps  prove  himself, 
after  being  the  cause  of  great  suffering  or  loss,  in- 
capable of  learning  to  do  better.  It  does,  in  fact, 
matter  a  great  deal  more,  that  a  professional  man 
should  be  able  to  succeed  undeservingly,  than  that 
poor  merchandise  should  be  sold.  The  true  solu- 
tion of  this  problem  is,  that  if  Advertising  does 
eventually  reach  so   high  a   moral  standard  as   to 


42  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

preclude  any  sort  of  unworthiness,  and  not  otherwise, 
professional  men  and  women  can  begin  to  advertise. 
The  superior  opportunities  of  the  man  with  money 
will  not  then  be  a  public  disadvantage  :  since  however 
much  money  he  may  possess,  he  cannot  overstate 
his  own  case.  The  poor  man  with  talent  will  be  in  a 
slightly  worse  position  than  now,  but  not  much  worse. 
Indeed,  his  position  could  not  easily  be  much  worse 
than  it  is. 

The  improvements  in  Advertising,  both  moral 
and  material,  here  foreseen,  would  necessitate,  even 
if  it  were  not  certain  that  they  would  result  from, 
a  fuller  recognition  of  Advertising  as  a  profession  in 
itself.  It  will  be  proper  to  conclude  this  rather  desul- 
tory historical  and  prophetic  disquisition  with  a  brief. 
notice  of  the  way  in  which  Advertising  has  been 
learned  in  the  past,  and  will  be  taught  in  the  future. 

It  is  the  worst  organised  and  most  unsystematic 
business  in  the  world.  As  I  showed  in  the  sixth 
Lecture,  young  people  almost  always  drift  into  the 
advertising  department  of  a  business  by  accident, 
and  pick  up  their  knowledge  as  and  how  they  can. 
Advertising  is,  in  fact,  the  last  of  the  traditional 
callings.  I  do  not  forget  several  '  correspondence ' 
courses  by  which  the  business  is  made  easier  for  a 
novice  to  pick  up.  A  novice  can,  in  fact,  learn  from 
the  best  of  these  courses  a  good  deal  which  will  be 
useful  to  him.  He  can  acquire  the  superficial  know- 
ledge of  printing  with  which  an  advertising-man 
cannot  dispense.  He  can  learn  how  to  put  on  paper 
any  ideas  which  he  may  have  about  the  disposition  of 
type  in  an  announcement  or  a  pamphlet.  He  can 
learn  the  general  laws  of  copy-writing,  and  of  the 
choice  of  the  media  and  modes  of  advertisement.     He 


INTRODUCTION  43 

will  be  a  great  deal  more  useful  to  his  superiors,  when 
he  goes  to  work,  than  if  he  had  not  had  the  surface 
of  his  ignorance  thus  rubbed  down  a  little.  But  he 
will  not  be  a  finished  advertising-man  until  he  has 
absorbed  the  traditions  of  the  business,  and  through 
them  learned  to  think  constructively  of  salesmanship 
in  print.  These  traditions  and  the  learning  referred 
to  are  unprinted  and  unformulated,  for  the  most 
part.  A  few  courses  of  lessons  have  been  given, 
and  have  been  well  attended,  at  continuation  schools. 
The  late  Mr.  Whitebrook  and,  more  recently,  Mr. 
Freear,  have  conducted  such  classes  with  marked 
ability.  But  there  is  no  organised  teaching  by 
which  a  student  can  begin  a  course,  carry  it  through 
to  the  end,  and  pass  on  to  higher  courses  until  he  has 
a  complete  theory  at  his  disposal,  and  would  be  able 
to  take  charge  of  an  advertising  department  as  soon 
as  he  had  had  time  to  study  the  inside  policy  of  the 
business  which  it  served.  An  advertising-man,  in 
fact,  has  to  grow  up  in  some  business  house  before 
he  can  become  fully  equipped.  There  is  no  school 
but  experience.  The  consequence  is  that  only  excep- 
tional persons  of  business  can  be  induced  to  look  upon 
Advertising  as  anything  but  a  superior  form  of 
gambling. 

Through  its  School  of  Economics  and  Political 
Science,  the  University  of  London  may  be  said  to 
have  extended  to  Advertising  a  certain  academic 
recognition.  The  course  of  lectures  which  I  was 
honoured  by  being  permitted  to  deliver,  and  an  earlier 
course  at  the  same  school  by  Mr.  E.  Walls,  were 
the  first  important  examples  of  such  recognition  on 
this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  The  London  Chamber  of 
Commerce  examines  in  Advertising,  my  friend  Sir 


44  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

Hedley  Le  Bas  having  set  the  papers.  The  Council 
of  the  Incorporated  Society  of  Advertisement  Con- 
sultants contemplates  a  system  of  examination  to 
be  extended  to  candidates  who  will  not  be  members  of 
the  Incorporated  Society.  But  Advertising  has  not 
achieved  in  this  country,  and  certainly  not  on  the 
Continent,  the  same  recognition  as  it  has  received 
from  several  Universities  of  the  United  States. 
Perhaps  the  day  is  still  distant  when  a  degree  in 
Advertising  will  be  anywhere  conferred.  But  as  the 
economical,  ethical,  and  commercial  advantages  of 
Advertising  become  a  little  more  fully  developed,  I 
think  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  subject  will  be  taken 
more  seriously,  and  that  the  public  interest  will 
thereby  be  in  very  important  ways  subserved. 


LECTURE  I 

The  Economic  Justification  of  Advertising 

Ancient  prejudices  dying — The  new  era  in  Advertising — ^The  word 
'  advertise  '  :  its  history — Advertising  defined — Influence  of 
Advertising  in  removing  an  objectionable  secresy — Modern  re- 
forms in  advertisements  traceable  to  the  United  States — The 
Printers'  Ink  Statute-?^conomics  of  Advertising — Advertising 
and  its  opponents — The  influence 'bf  Advertising  on  prices — On 
■^  >new  inventions — ^Economic  usefulness  of  Advertising  in  standard- 
isation of  products-^And  in  reducing  expense  of  distribution — ^ 
What  retail  prices  are  composed  of — Advertising  enlarges  the 
market — Statistics  of  consumption  of  cocoa  in  Britain  and  tobacco 
in  the  United  States — How  advertising  shortens  the  path  of  the 
product — Cutting  out  the  middle-man — Proportion  of  advertising 
to  sales — Advertising  as  a  waste-preventer — Sale  of  by-products 
made  possible  by  Advertising — If  there  were  no  Advertising  ? 

THE  author  of  *  Peter  Pan,'  in  one  of  his 
enchanting  stories  of  Scottish  life,  describes 
a  certain  club  'shorn  of  its  more  respectable 
members,'  while  the  rest  '  drew  the  blinds  close  and 
talked  openly  of  Shakespeare.'  In  times  not  so  very- 
long  past,  it  would  have  required  some  temerity,  in 
these  academic  halls,  to  broach  the  subject  of  these 
lectures.  The  times  are  changed,  and  I  need  not  draw 
down  the  blinds  to  talk  openly  about  Advertising. 

Prejudice  dies  hard,  but  it  is  dying.  Advertise- 
ments were  once  a  mere  by-product  of  the  news- 
paper— inserted,  if  there  were  room,  in  some  odd 
corner.  To-day  the  newspaper  is,  in  its  commercial 
aspect  as  a  matter  of  pounds,  shillings,  and  pence, 
a  by-product  of  Advertising.  Hardly  any  newspaper 
could  exist  without  the  advertisements  which  earn 
the  greatest  part  of  its  revenue.  Thanks  to 
Advertising,  readers  of  newspapers,  magazines,  and 
periodicals   receive   for   the   price   of  printing,   and 

45 


46  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

sometimes  only  a  mere  fraction  of  it,  valuable  in- 
struction, public  information,  fiction  suited  to  all 
tastes  (good  and  bad),  and  some  really  wonderful 
illustrations.  In  all  its  forms.  Advertising  has  an 
annual  value  in  this  country  which  I  have,  without 
contradiction,  publicly  estimated  at  ,£100,000,000  a 
year.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  affirm  that  the  enormous 
growth  of  Advertising,  and  the  public  benefits  which 
I  have  mentioned — its  by-products — are  entirely 
due  to  the  discovery  that  useful  and  legitimate 
advertising   is  the   only  kind  that  is  profitable. 

This  art  of  legitimate  advertising  has  not  long 
received  anything  like  general  recognition,  and  it  has 
still  its  unconverted  critics.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  new  era,  while  the  art  was  in  the  throes  of  birth, 
it  had  to  battle  with  the  prejudices  of  prenatal  times. 
A  certain  f urtiveness,  struggling  with  blatant  and  noisy 
vulgarity,  still  hung  about  it.  The  quarrel  is  not 
yet  fully  composed.  And  all  the  while,  imperfect, 
undeveloped,  though  gradually  realising  where  true 
success  lay,  gradually  cleansing  itself  of  its  soiled 
past,  the  business  of  Advertising  laboured  under 
some  suspicion  of  its  honesty. 

I  think  the  transitional  period  is  over.  In  our 
day,  Advertising  has  come  into  its  own.  Men  of 
high  character  and  business  houses  of  the  first  repu- 
tation have  availed  themselves  of  it.  We  have 
lived  to  see  Governments  soliciting  its  aid,  war  waged 
with  this  weapon,  and  the  sinews  of  war  collected 
through  advertisements  very  unlike  the  old  style 
of  official,  and  even  of  financial,  prospectuses.  In 
ten  months  no  less  than  £1,000,000,000  sterling 
were  obtained  from  the  public  for  National  War 
Bonds   and  War   Savings   Certificates   through  ad- 


ECONOMIC  JUSTIFICATION  OF  ADVERTISING      47 

vertisements  published  under  the  direction  of  my 
friend  Sir  G.  A.  Sutton.  The  great  extension  of 
modern  advertising  would  hardly  have  been  tolerated 
by  public  opinion  if  commerce  had  not  already  shown 
by  practical  example  that  the  best  way  to  make 
advertising  succeed  was  to  make  it  irreproachable. 
I  think  we  need  not  fear  that  fraud  will  ever  again 
be  the  frequent  purpose  of  Advertising,  or  vulgarity 
its  implement.  Advertising,  the  Cinderella  of  the 
business  world,  has  met  the  fairy  godmother  and 
learned  to  wear  the  shining  garmenture  of  truth. 
No  stroke  of  midnight  will  strip  her  of  that  fine 
array.  The  hands  of  the  clock  will  move  forward 
without  arresting  her  beneficent  progress. 

If  we  look  back  at  the  history  of  the  word,  *  to 
advertise '  means  just  what  in  its  best  expression 
it  means  to  commerce.  In  the  sense  of  to  make 
known  something,  or  to  attract  the  attention  of 
someone,  *  advertise '  occurs  twice  in  the  Authorised 
Version  ^  of  the  Bible,  and,  with  its  inflections  and 
derivatives,  thirteen  times  in  Shakespeare.  The 
famous  tag  from  the  First  Part  of  King  Henry  IV ^ 
'  Yet  doth  he  give  us  bold  advertisement,'  merely 
means  that  he  clearly  informs  us.^ 

The  earliest  example  that  I  have  been  able  to 
trace  of  the  word  in  its  limited  commercial  sense 

^  The  word  '  Advertise  '  was  at  first  an  alternative  form  of  '  Advert  * 
(Latin,  advertere,  to  turn  to,  direct).  One  of  the  references  in  the  Bible 
has  an  oddly  modern  effect  when  read  apart  from  the  context — Ruth 
iv.  4  :  *  And  I  thought  to  advertise  thee,  saying.  Buy  it.*  But  the 
previous  verse  shows  that  the  sense  is  '  I  thought  to  draw  your 
attention  to  it,' 

"  In  Shakespeare,  the  word  is  accented  on  the  second  syllable — 
advertise,  advertised,  advertising.  In  the  north  of  Ireland  and  by 
some  Scotsmen  it  is  still  so  pronounced.  The  abstract  noun  is  similarly 
scanned — advertisement.  Those  Americans  who  make  the  '  i '  long — 
advertise'ment — and  imagine  that  they  are  preserving  the  classical 
usage  are  therefore  mistaken. 


48  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

is  in  the  Spectator^  1712.^  I  should  like  to  call  the 
announcing  sense  of  '  advertise  '  the  modern  meaning 
as  opposed  to  the  obsolete  use  of  puff  and  exaggera- 
tion. But  here,  we  shall  find  cross-classifications. 
Some  of  the  old  advertising  was  excellently  simple 
and  honest.  There  is  still  some  current  advertising 
which  the  serious  student  of  the  art  would  like  to 
forget.  But  '  modern '  is  an  unsatisfactory  word 
at  the  best.  To  the  historian,  it  connotes  the  period 
since  about  1453  ;  but  few  of  us  think  of  Edward  IV 
as  a  very  modern  monarch :  and  modern  music  can 
be  dated,  according  to  taste,  from  Bach,  Handel, 
Wagner,  or  Cesar  Franck.  I  would  rather  fix  the 
dividing-line  according  to  manner,  counting  as 
'  modern '  the  kind  of  advertising  which  conforms 
to  modern  standards,  irrespective  of  its  date.  In 
the  year  1904,  when  the  editorial  columns  of  7 he 
Times,  by  publishing  some  articles  of  mine  on  the 
subject,  first  showed  evidence  of  having  observed 
the  adjacent  columns  of  advertising,  I  adopted  the 
term  *  Commercial  advertising  '  to  denote  (as  defined 
in  a  preface  to  the  reprint  subsequently  published 
by  The  Times)  '  the  type  of  business  announcements 
having    demonstrable    public    utility.'     This    *  com- 

1  Steele,  Spectator,  No.  521  (1712),  has :  '  He  has  desired  the 
Advertiser  to  compose  himself  a  little  before  he  dictated  the  Descrip- 
tion of  the  offender.'  The  Public  Advertiser  (the  journal  in  which  the 
Letters  of  Junius  appeared)  was  so  called  from  the  news  columns  in 
which  it  '  advertised  *  the  public  of  events,  and  not  from  any  com- 
mercial announcements  ;  but  Junius,  Letter  LXVIII,  says  of  a  quack  : 
'  He  advertises  for  patients.'  Horace  Walpole,  Correspondence,  vol.  ii, 
p.  374  (third  edition),  has  :  '  A  citizen  had  advertized  a  reward  for  the 
discovery  of  a  person  who  had  stolen  sixty  guineas.'  It  is  easy  to  see 
how  advertising — that  is,  giving  notice  of — a  reward,  or  of  anything  else, 
being  extended  to  announcements  of  goods  for  sale,  might  push  the 
more  general  use  of  the  word  '  advertise '  aside,  and  give  it  the 
specialised  meaning  which  survives.  Well  up  to  the  last  quarter  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  however,  references  to  earlier  editions  often 
appeared  at  the  beginning  of  a  book,  with  the  heading  '  Advertisement,' 
in  quite  the  old  sense. 


ECONOMIC  JUSTIFICATION  OF  ADVERTISING      49 

mercial '    Advertising    has    been    rather    generally 
accepted  as  a  conventional  term. 

Suppose  we  leave  definitions  at  this — that 
Advertising  means  making  known  the  truth  about 
some  commercial  subject.  In  its  best  and  most 
profitable  expression,  it  means  just  letting  light 
into  the  dark  places  of  business.  It  allows  the 
purchaser  to  know  who  is  behind  the  goods.  I  will 
give  you  examples.  If  you  go  into  a  music-shop 
in  the  provinces,  you  will  very  likely  find  pianos 
bearing  the  name,  as  maker,  of  the  shopkeeper. 
Now  a  country  shopkeeper  does  not  make  pianos. 
He  has  not  the  machinery.  He  has  not  the  know- 
ledge. He  has  not  the  space.  The  piano  is  made  in 
a  factory  somewhere,  by  a  maker  who  sedulously 
conceals  his  name  from  the  public,  and  puts  on 
it  the  misleading  imprint  of  any  retailer  who  will 
buy  from  him.  Again,  if  you  buy  a  collar,  you  will 
find  on  it,  more  often  than  otherwise,  not  the  name 
of  the  maker,  but  the  name  of  the  man  who  sells  it — 
sometimes  with  the  false  statement  that  it  is  *  manu- 
factured '  by  him.  Factory-made  bicycles  bear 
transfers  with  the  name  of  the  retailer.  Grocers 
who  buy  all  their  tea  ready  for  sale,  each  quality 
separately  made  up  for  them,  say  on  their  windows 
that  they  are  expert  tea-blenders.^ 

In  all  these  cases,  the  truth  is  being  hidden 
from  the  public.  The  moment  Advertising  steps  in, 
concealment  vanishes.  Broadwood  pianos,  Radiac 
collars,  Raleigh  bicycles,  Brooke  Bond's  tea,  reveal 
their  origin.     There  is  a  reputation  behind  them  which 

*  Of  course  there  are  certificated  grocers  who  could  blend  their 
own  teas,  and  if  they  trade  on  a  very  large  scale  do  actually  possess 
the  machinery  and  knowledge  to  do  their  own  blending.  But  there 
<vre  not  many  grocers  who  do  this, 

9 


50  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

it  is  profitable  for  the  advertiser  to  sustain  by  good 
quality.     Is  not  this  a  good  thing  for  the  public  ? 

And  just  as  Advertising  counteracts  the  evil 
secrecy  which  is  a  blot  on  many  kinds  of  commerce, 
so  also  it  tends  to  correct  unnecessary  secretiveness 
in  other  ways.  Quite  unreasonably — for  they  have 
less  to  conceal  than  any  other  people  in  the  world — 
English  men  of  business  behave  as  if  every  detail  of 
their  work  contained  a  guilty  secret.  They  live  in 
an  atmosphere  of  perpetual  suspicion.  A  question 
alarms  them.  They  imagine  that  their  competitors 
are  ever  seeking  to  learn  their  secrets. 

The  fact  is,  that  (a  few  secret  processes  apart) 
the  more  a  man's  business  is  known,  the  better 
for  him — if  his  methods  are  honest.  And  the  one 
way  to  be  sure  that  no  improvement  will  pass  you 
by,  is  to  be  generous  in  sharing  your  own  experience. 
Our  American  cousins  are  broader-minded.  Not 
long  ago,  I  read  in  one  of  their  technical  journals 
a  paragraph  about  a  business  house  in  Rochester, 
New  York.  This  company  had  introduced  a  new 
method  of  managing  a  number  of  its  retail  shops. 
The  paragraph  ran  thus  : 

The  Duffy-Powers  Company,  of  Rochester,  N.Y.,  whose 
'  self-serve '  adventure  has  been  given  much  publicity,  is 
receiving  so  many  inquiries  about  the  plan  that  it  has  found 
it  necessary  to  issue  a  book,  giving  all  the  desired  information. 
More  than  one  hundred  merchants  from  every  part  of  the 
United  States  have  visited  Rochester  in  person  to  investigate 
the  possibilities  of  this  new  method  of  retailing. 

These  people  had  invented  a  new  and  profit- 
able business  method.  They  realised  that  it  was 
impossible  to  keep  a  thing  like  that  a  secret.  When 
other  firms — their  possible  competitors — heard  of  it. 


ECONOMIC  JUSTIFICATION  OF  ADVERTISING      51 

these  did  not  hesitate  to  ask  for  details,  and  the 
company  actually  went  to  the  expense  of  printing 
those  details  for  their  benefit.  It  is  because  Adver- 
tising is  so  much  more  completely  the  life  and  soul 
of  business  in  the  United  States,  that  information 
is  as  plentiful  there  as  it  is  scarce  here. 

Thus,  when  we  come  to  discuss  practical  methods 
of  advertising,  we  shall  find  that  our  whole  effort 
is  to  find  out  how  to  make  the  truth  about  our  goods 
as  widely  known  as  possible.  As  Shakespeare  says, 
'  An  honest  tale  speeds  best,  being  plainly  told.' 

It  will  hardly  be  profitable  to  give  more  than  a 
glance  at  the  historical  aspect  of  Advertising.  I 
shall  spare  you  the  customary  delvings  into  the 
classical  period,  the  reference  to  a  '  reward  '  adver- 
tisement in  Pausanias,  and  the  notices  affixed  to 
statues  of  the  infernal  deities  by  the  Greeks.  In 
those  days  there  really  was  something  sinister  about 
Advertising  !  It  is  best  to  pass  over  the  advertise- 
ments of  gladiators,  unearthed  at  Pompeii,  and 
the  licensed  criers  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  come 
to  the  time  when  the  history  of  the  Advertising, 
which  I  have  called  commercial,  began.  You  are 
not  to  suppose  that  there  were  no  honest  advertise- 
ments in  the  old  days.  But  the  slow  decay  of 
exaggeration  in  the  last  fifteen  years  or  so  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  and  the  gradual  recognition  that 
nothing  sells  goods  so  quickly  as  telling  the  truth 
about  them,  mark  an  era  of  real  progress. 

In  flagrant  contrast  to  all  popular  ideas  on  the 
subject,  I  think  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  great 
reform  had  its  birth  in  the  United  States.  In  1888, 
the  late  George  P.  Rowell,  an  American  advertising 
agent,   founded   the  first   technical   journal   of   the 


52  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

advertising  business — Printers*  Ink,  He  taught,  as 
his  editor,  Mr.  John  Irving  Romer,  still  teaches  in 
the  same  pages,  that  if  Advertising  was  to  have  an 
assured  future,  the  vices  of  exaggeration  and  mis- 
representation must  go.  After  many  years — as 
recently  as  in  the  present  century — an  effort  was 
made  to  obtain  legislative  protection  for  the  public 
and  for  the  honest  advertiser  against  the  competition 
of  the  unscrupulous.  A  model  statute,  which  came  to 
be  known  as  the  Printers^  Ink  Statute,  was  drawn  up, 
and  has  been  adopted  with  or  without  amendment 
by  the  State  of  New  York,  in  thirty-eight  other  States 
in  the  Union,  and  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  Many 
States  provide  special  penalties  of  fine  and  imprison- 
ment. In  some  States  newspapers  and  advertising 
agents  are  penalised  as  well  as  the  actual  advertisers.^ 

^  The  operative  clauses  of  this  Statute  as  originally  drafted  are  as 
follows  : — 

'  Any  person,  firm,  corporation,  or  association  who,  with  intent  to 
sell  or  in  any  wise  dispose  of  merchandise,  securities,  service,  or  any- 
thing offered  by  such  person,  firm,  corporation,  or  association,  directly 
or  indirectly,  to  the  public  for  sale  or  distribution,  or  with  intent  to 
increase  the  consumption  thereof,  or  to  induce  the  public  in  any  manner 
to  enter  into  any  obligation  relating  thereto,  or  to  acquire  title  thereto, 
or  an  interest  therein,  makes,  pubUshes,  disseminates,  circulates,  or 
places  before  the  pubUc,  or  causes,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  be  made, 
pubhshed,  disseminated,  circulated,  or  placed  before  the  pubhc,  in  this 
State,  in  a  newspaper  or  other  publication,  or  in  the  form  of  a  book, 
notice,  hand-bill,  poster,  bill,  circular,  pamphlet,  or  letter,  or  in  any 
other  way,  an  advertisement  of  any  sort  regarding  merchandise, 
securities,  service,  or  anything  so  offered  to  the  pubhc,  which  advertise- 
ment contains  any  assertion,  representation,  or  statement  of  fact  which 
is  untrue,  deceptive,  or  misleading,  shall  be  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor.* 

At  the  same  time,  and  earlier,  Mr.  Rowell  and  his  successors  fought 
a  great  fight  for  another  element  in  advertising-honesty.  They  de- 
manded that  newspapers  should  disclose  their  circulation-figures,  and 
estabUshed  a  newspaper  directory  in  which  the  circulations  of  newspapers 
which  had  revealed  their  figures  were  distinguished.  The  movement 
in  favour  of  disclosed  circulations  has  been  carried  on  in  this  country 
with  less  success,  but  not  without  a  great  measure  of  success.  The 
Advertisers'  Protection  Society  was  the  pioneer,  and  of  late  years  the 
most  largely  circulated  daily  papers,  and  even  The  Times,  have 
published  accountants'  certificates,  showing  not  merely  circulation,  but 
net  sales.  The  same  policy  has  been  pursued  by  a  certain  number 
of  weekly  papers  and  magazines.  I  believe  the  first  paper  to  make 
net  sales  the  standard  was  London  Opinion. 


ECONOMIC  JUSTIFICATION  OF  ADVERTISING      53 

While  it  is  only  in  the  United  States  that  this  legis- 
lative sanction  has  been  given  to  advertisements 
suffered  to  appear,  the  law  of  all  countries  gives 
validity  to  advertising-contracts,  recognising  and 
enforcing  claims  for  moneys  spent  or  contracted  for. 
Commercial  advertising  has  a  legal  status,  as  long  as 
it  is  honest.  But  a  contract  for  advertising  which 
could  be  shown  to  be  fraudulent,  or  even  exaggerated 
to  an  extent  calculated  to  deceive  the  public,  would 
not  be  enforcible,  and  in  a  case  within  the  last  three 
years  such  a  contract  was  declared  void  by  the  High 
Court.  In  this  principle  we  have  the  germ  of  future 
regulation  of  advertising.  When  the  advertising  com- 
munity has  fully  realised  the  intimate  manner  in 
which  the  prosperity  of  its  business  is  bound  up  with 
probity  and  veracity  there  is  a  means  at  hand  by 
which  all  advertising  can  be  brought  into  line.  And 
it  is  becoming  more  and  more  realised  by  advertising 
men  that  the  residuum  of  fraudulent  and  otherwise 
objectionable  advertising  which  still  unfortunately 
exists  is  injurious  to  reputable  and  worthy  advertisers. 
I  will  not  labour  the  point  further.  The  moral 
standard  of  Advertising  has  risen,  is  rising,  and  will 
continue  to  rise.  It  is  the  interest  of  advertising 
men  to  help  it  on  its  upward  course,  not  for  ethical 
reasons  alone,  but  for  commercial  reasons  also. 

But  there  would  be  little  justification  for  the 
expenditure  of  a  hundred  millions  a  year  in  advertis- 
ing, if  the  only  effect  of  this  expense  was  to  increase 
the  profits  of  advertisers.  Not  in  war  time  alone, 
but  in  all  times,  waste  of  money  injures  the  whole 
community,  and  not  only  the  person  whose  money 
is  wasted.  If  the  labour  purchased  by  these  hundred 
millions  were  employed  in  production  of  commodities. 


54  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

the  quantity  of  commodities  would  be  pro  tanto 
increased,  and  competition  would  reduce  their  price. 
Therefore  we  shall  not  justify  the  business  of 
Advertising  unless  we  show  that  it  is  in  itself  produc- 
tive and  has  other  economic  justifications.  I  detain 
you  for  a  few  minutes  with  critical  and  constructive 
proof  of  this,  because  the  fact  has  been  somewhat 
vehemently  denied. 

The  case  against  public  Advertising  as  stated  by 
its  opponents  has  three  elements  which  I  think  may 
be  fairly  summarised  as  follows  : 

1.  Advertising  is  inseparably  bound  up  with 
exaggeration,  misrepresentation,  and  overcharging 

2.  If  Advertising  did  not  exist,  commodities  of 
equal  value  would  be  obtained  by  consumers  as 
plentifully  and  as  cheaply. 

3.  The  cost  of  Advertising  must  be  added  to  the 
price  of  goods,  and  therefore  advertised  commodities 
arc  unnecessarily  dear. 

With  the  first  of  these  allegations  I  have  dealt 
pretty  fully  in  my  opening  remarks.  Anyone  ac- 
quainted with  the  commercial  history  of  the  last 
forty  years  knows  that  it  is  not  true.  The  same 
persons  who  allege  that  exaggeration,  misstatement, 
and  gross  overcharging  are  probable  features  of 
publicity  would  scout  the  idea  that  a  man  could 
keep  shop  on  any  such  principles.  It  would  be 
instantly  obvious  to  them  that  a  tradesman  w^ho 
pushed  his  sales  by  deception,  and  inflated  his  profits 
by  overcharge,  could  not  long  keep  the  shutters  down. 
Yet  advertisement  is,  after  all,  directly  or  indirectly, 
only  an  adjunct  to  shopkeeping  on  the  large  scale. 
It  is  no  more  possible  for  trade  to  be  maintained  by 
false  statements  circulated  by  advertisements,  than 


ECONOMIC  JUSTIFICATION  OF  ADVERTISING      55 

by  word-of -mouth  falsehoods  uttered  across  the 
counter.  Indeed,  it  is  much  more  difficult.  A 
spoken  statement  may  be  retracted  or  explained 
away.     The  printed  word  remains. 

With  the  third  contention — that  Advertising  makes  "' 
advertised  goods  dearer — I  shall  deal  constructively 
in  the  second  part  of  this  argument.  It  can  be 
shown  beyond  question,  by  principle  and  by  practical 
example,  that  the  reverse  is  true.  Advertising  has 
a  general  tendency  to  make  at  least  staple  goods 
cheaper.  The  second  point  alone  requires  considera- 
tion at  this  moment. 

*  If  Advertising  did  not  exist,  commodities  of 
equal  value  could  be  obtained  as  plentifully  and  as 
cheaply.'  This  is  the  most  formidable  indictment 
of  the  three.  *  vy>,    lv.»-A^' 

The  answer  to  it  is,  that  many  desirable  com- 
modities would  not  be  produced  at  all,  if  Advertising 
did  not  exist,  to  provide  a  sufficient  market  for  them. 
Modern  Advertising  justifies  itself  economically  by  ■, 
its  function  of  bringing  knowledge  of  desirable 
merchandise  to  the  consumer  of  it.  To  create  a  new 
want  is  justifiable  and  useful  where  the  standard  of 
living  is  raised  by  it.  No  one  would  die  if  the  tele- 
phone were  abolished.  But  the  telephone  raises 
the  standard  of  convenience.  A  civilised  man  differs 
from  a  savage  just  as  much  by  his  wants  as  by  his 
inventions.  Savages  do  not  want  to  clean  their 
caves.  If  mechanical  carpet-sweepers,  like  the 
Bissell,  had  not  been  advertised,  the  housewife  would 
have  been  still  content  with  the  laborious  and  in- 
eifectual  broom.  They  could  not  have  been  intro- 
duced without  Advertising.  A  safety-razor  not  only 
cuts  less,  but  also  shaves  better  and  closer  than  a 


56  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

razor  of  the  old  type  ;  but  the  safety-razor  was  at 
first  a  rare  and  clumsy  adaptation  of  the  old-fashioned 
knife-blade  razor,  so  inconvenient  that  hardly  any- 
one used  it  until  safety-razors  of  the  Gillette  type 
were  advertised. 

But  the  vacuum-cleaner  or  the  player-piano  is 
a  better  example.  These  things  are  not  essentials  of 
life ;  but  neither  are  shirts,  collars,  or  even  trousers. 
It  was  pleaded  on  behalf  of  an  infant-in-law — that 
is,  a  young  man  under  twenty-one — that  two  dozen 
pairs  of  trousers,  for  which  a  tailor  was  suing,  were 
not  necessaries.  The  judge  remarked — perhaps  irre- 
levantly— that  though  trousers  were  in  truth  not 
necessary,  they  were  a  great  luxury  in  this  climate. 
Now  it  is  certain  that  the  only  way  to  make  the 
vacuum-cleaner,  which  is  a  great  labour-saver,  and 
the  Pianola,  which  is  a  source  of  much  innocent 
happiness,  at  a  practical  price,  is  to  make  them  in 
great  numbers.  The  small  parts  of  which  these 
machines  are  composed  would  be  very  expensive  to 
make  by  hand.  Special  machines  and  tools,  costing 
a  good  deal  of  money,  must  be  made  to  turn  them 
out  by  the  thousand.  But  it  certainly  would  have 
been  very  hazardous  to  instal  this  machinery,  unless 
a  quick  and  an  assured  market  could  be  foreseen. 
The  only  way  in  which  the  cleaner  and  the  player- 
piano  could  be  sold  quickly,  and  at  low  selling  expense, 
is  by  advertising  them,  so  that  the  machinery  could 
be  operated  economically  and  earn  interest  on  its 
cost.  If  the  inventors  waited  for  the  tardy  growth 
of  demand  through  recommendation,  finance  would 
eat  up  all  the  profits  ;  unless  the  goods  were  sold 
at  a  heavy  price  they  would  cost  more  than  they 
fetched.     It   is    therefore   certain   that   these   com- 


ECONOMIC  JUSTIFICATION  OF  ADVERTISING      57 

modities  would  not  be  produced  (in  the  words  of  the 
indictment)  so  plentifully  and  so  cheaply,  without 
Advertising. 

The  framers  of  the  objections  against  Advertising 
have  not,  so  far  as  I  know,  taken  up  the  much  more 
plausible — though    by    no    means    valid — objection 
with  which  I  supplied  them  a  few  moments  ago.      x 
The  question  whether  the  large  sums  of  money  spent 
in  advertising  employ  labour  which  could  be  better 
employed   in  production,   is   academic   rather   than 
practical.    You    cannot    condemn    Advertising    on 
this  ground  unless  you  are  also  prepared  to  abolish 
fireworks,   jewellery,   toys,   theatres,   billiards,   beer, 
tobacco,    and    every    other    sort    of    unproductive 
merchandise.     It  is  just  as  true  to  say  that  bread 
and  coal  would  be  cheaper  if  there  were  no  diamond 
rings  and  motor-cars,  as  it  is  to  say  that  they  would 
be  cheaper  if  there  were  no  Advertising.     In  fact 
it  is  true  that  diamond  rings  and  motor-cars  do,  in 
a  sense,  affect  the  price  of  food.     They  employ  labour 
which  might  otherwise  be  used  for  food-production. 
But  it  is  not  true  that  Advertising  affects  the  price 
of   food,    except   by   making   it   cheaper   and   more 
*  filling  at  the  price,'  as  I  shall  presently  show. 

I  hope  to  have  answered  the  case  against 
Advertising  which  might  be  founded  on  this  argument 
with  sufficient  fulness  by  these  examples  to  satisfy 
all  consciences. 

Let  us  now  come  to  the  constructive  case  in  favour 
of  Advertising.  An  important  element  in  this  case 
is  the  fact  that  Advertising  standardises  the  quality  .^ 
of  goods.  I  have  shown  that  many  new  inventions 
could  not  be  introduced  at  all  unless  they  were 
advertised,     and     presently     I     shall     show     that 


58  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

Advertising,  so  far  from  enabling  manufacturers  to 
charge  too  much  for  their  wares,  makes  it  profitable 
for  them  to  sell  their  wares  more  cheaply.  But 
when  we  use  the  word  ^  cheaply ',  as  here,  we  ought 
to  remember  what  '  cheap  '  means.  No  doubt  you 
can  buy  cocoa  cheaper  than  Cadbury's,  or  oatmeal 
cheaper  than  Quaker  oats.  You  can  get — or  you 
used  to  be  able  to  get — German  silk  that  seemed 
very  cheap  indeed,  weight  for  weight,  compared  with 
English  or  Lyons  silks,  and  even  with  ladies  in  the 
audience  I  will  venture  the  opinion  that  these  silks, 
artificially  weighted  with  gum  and  certain  salts  of 
tin,  were  not  really  cheap.  But  as  there  is  little 
or  no  advertising  by  manufacturers  of  silk,  there  is 
no  standard  of  quality.  Where  there  is  a  standard, 
you  will  not  find  that  staple  commodities  are  any 
cheaper  for  not  being  advertised.  Advertised  packet 
teas  are  generally  a  little  superior  in  quality  to  teas 
which  can  be  bought  from  bulk  at  the  same  price. 
Advertised  food-stuffs,  condiments,  textiles,  boots, 
soaps,  and  other  commodities,  cost  no  more  than 
others  :  some  of  them  cost  less  :  and  the  quality 
of  them  all  is  standardised.  Competition  forces  an 
advertiser  to  compute  the  expenses  of  advertisement 
as  a  trade  expense,  and  not  as  an  element  in  prime 
cost.  What  competition  cannot  do  to  an  advertised 
product,  is  to  degrade  the  quality  of  it,  because  the 
moment  a  thing  is  advertised,  self-interest  compels 
the  manufacturer  to  keep  the  goods  up  to  standard. 

But  where  the  public  has  no  means  of  identifying 
the  product,  the  tendency  of  competition  is  to  cause 
a  fall  in  quality.  Retailers  naturally  favour  the 
producer  who  will  leave  them  the  largest  profit,  or 
charge  them  prices  which  enable  them  to  undersell 


ECONOMIC  JUSTIFICATION  OF  ADVERTISING      59 

their  rivals.    The  manufacturer  who  sacrifices  part 
of  his  own  profit  to  compete  for  their  favour  only 
steps  upon  a  sliding  scale.     At  the  bottom  of  it  is 
adulteration,   or,  at   best,  the   adoption   of  inferior 
materials,   which   leads    to   new   competition.     The 
consumers  of  his  goods  do  not  identify  them.     They 
buy  what  is  cheapest,  and  even  if  they  do  not,  there 
is  no  standard  by  which  they  can  satisfy  themselves 
that  dearer  grades  are  worth  the  advance.     A  con- 
sumer may  be  injured  without  ever  knowing  it.     One 
unadvertised  flour  may  be  a  great  deal  less  nutritious 
than  another,  though  the  two  may  not  be  distinguish- 
able by  physical  tests  such  as  the   consumer   could 
apply.     An  invalid  wrapped  up  in  unadvertised  and 
adulterated  flannel  may  suffer  grievously  in  health; 
but  he  cannot  readily  distinguish  cotton  from  wool. 
It  is  to  no  one's  interest  in  either  case  to   supply 
analyses,  and  even  if  such  analyses  were  supplied, 
they  would  have  little  meaning  except  for  a  professed 
student  of  hygiene.     But  the  case  is  different  with 
an   advertised   article.     It  will   then   commonly  be 
to  the  interest  of  the  manufacturer  to  publish  some 
facts  and  explanations  about  his  wares.     In  other 
words,    the    consumer    of   an    advertised   article   is 
protected  by  the  interest  of  the  manufacturer,  and 
the  consumer  of  an  article  which  is  sold  without 
being  advertised  is  not.     He  does  not  know  where 
the  goods  come  from,  and  the  only  thing  he  can  do, 
if  he  is  not  satisfied,  is  to  go  to  a  different  shop, 
where  very  likely  he  will  get  the  same  goods  !     It 
is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  advertised  goods  on 
which  the  largest  profits  are  made,  are  precisely  those 
on  which  the  individual  profit  per  sale  is  lowest. 
One  reason  why  advertised  goods,  despite  the 


6o  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

heavy  expense  of  advertising,  are  not  dearer  than 
the  others,  is  rather  apt  to  be  overlooked.  A  manu- 
facturer, who,  by  means  of  advertisements,  is  able 
to  increase  the  scale  of  his  business,  produces  goods 
at  a  lower  factory-cost,  for  a  greater  output  is 
accompanied  by  economies  in  manufacture  ;  so  that 
an  expenditure  in  advertisements,  calculated  to  be 
recouped  by  profits  on  an  existing  scale  of  production, 
which  presently  makes  a  market  for  increased  out- 
put, is  much  more  than  merely  a  propulsive  force. 
It  becomes  a  productive  force,  increasing  the  capacity 
of  the  manufactory,  and  rendering  possible  the 
employment  of  additional  plant.  Rates  and  taxes, 
interest  on  the  cost  of  machines,  buildings  and  land, 
and  the  expense  of  insuring  them,  with  many  other 
costs,  are  just  as  heavy  when  the  factory  is  working 
only  eight  hours  a  day  as  when  it  is  working  with 
three  shifts  and  the  machines  never  stop,  day  or 
night.  These  fixed  costs  have  to  be  spread  over  the 
output.  If  the  output  increases,  the  cost  of  it  falls. 
This  is  very  elementary,  of  course. 

But  I  shall  not  have  proved  the  case  in  favour 
of  Advertising  as  an  economic  force  unless  I  show 
that  it  enables  the  consumer  to  buy  more  cheaply 
than  he  otherwise  could.  Surely,  it  may  be  said, 
if  a  man  spends  thousands  of  pounds  a  year  in 
advertising  a  thing  like  cocoa  or  laundry  soap,  he 
could  reduce  the  price  by  stopping  all  this  expense, 
and  deducting  the  amount  of  it  from  what  he  charges 
for  his  wares.  But  in  the  first  place  (as  I  shall  show 
in  a  subsequent  lecture)  these  staple  articles,  sold 
cheaply,  cost  very  little  to  advertise  in  proportion 
to  their  sale-value.  It  would  not  be  easy  to  take 
3  per  cent,  off  the  price  of  a  threepenny  bar  of  soap, 


ECONOMIC  JUSTIFICATION  OF  ADVERTISING      6i 

or  a  sixpenny  tin  of  cocoa,  even  if  you  could  save 
3  per  cent,  by  not  advertising.  In  any  event,  the 
cost  of  pushing  the  sale  by  travellers  and  giving 
large  profits  to  retailers  as  an  inducement  to 
promote  the  sale  of  brands  which  the  public 
did  not  ask  for,  would  bear  a  far  greater  pro- 
portion to  the  selling  price  than  the  advertising 
expenditure — even  though  this  were  j£  100,000  or 
5^200,000  a  year. 

This  contention  makes  it  necessary  to  ask 
exactly  how  the  retail  price  of  any  commodity  is 
arrived  at,  what  are  its  components,  and  wherein 
these  component  elements  are  capable  of  adjust- 
ment. 

How,  then,  is  the  cost  of  anything  which  you 
buy  made  up — the  price  of  a  potato  or  a  piano,  a 
collar  or  a  carpet,  a  sewing-machine,  a  typewriter, 
or  a  packet  of  cocoa,  or  a  pound  of  steak  ?  The 
price  is  not  made  up  merely  of  the  cost  and  the  profit. 
It  is  made  up  of  the  cost  of  making  or  producing  the 
goods,  and  the  cost  of  conveying  and  selling  them 
to  you. 

A  fruit-farmer  in  Kent  was  paid,  last  August, 
seven  shillings  a  bushel — less  than  twopence  a  pound 
— for  a  crop  of  apples.  They  were  not  of  the 
choicest  kind,  but  similar  fruit  could  not  be  bought 
at  the  time  in  London  for  less  than  a  shilling  a 
pound,  retail.  It  cost  more  than  five  times  the 
actual  price  paid  to  the  producer  of  apples  to  get 
these  goods  to  the  public — including  middlemen's 
profits !  1  ^ 

The  difference  between  what  apples  brought  the 
grower  of  them,  who  was  about  the  worthiest  person 

*  Daily  Chronicle  (August  24,  191 8). 


62  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

concerned  in  the  business,  and  what  the  apples  cost 
at  the  greengrocer's,  represents  selling  expense — 
unaided  by  Advertising.  You  may  say  that  this 
is  an  exceptional  case.  But  is  it  ?  Before  the  War 
there  were  roughly  two  classes  of  sewing-machines. 
One  class  cost  about  ^6,  The  other  cost  just  under 
3^3 — fi  igs,  6d.,  or  something  like  that,  the  odd  price 
being  adopted  for  the  suggestion  of  cheapness, 
like  the  draper's  iif^.  It  is  long  since  the  patented 
sewing-machines  have  been  extensively  advertised, 
and  most  of  the  £6  machines  are  sold  through  agents 
and  canvassers.  The  other  kind — mostly,  I  fear, 
German  imitations  of  expired  patents — ^were  adver- 
tised, on  quite  a  small  scale.  But  this  small  advertis- 
ing enabled  the  importers  to  sell  them  at  half  the  price 
of  some  unadvertised  machines.  I  will  offer  no 
opinion  as  to  the  merit  of  the  respective  machines, 
beyond  saying  that  both  kinds  appear  to  give 
satisfaction. 

Ignoring  freight,  which  has  to  be  counted  in  the 
cost  anyway,  the  retail  price  of  a  sewing-machine, 
or  anything  sold  to  the  public  in  the  ordinary 
way,  is  made  up  of  five  items — the  factory-  or 
production-cost  of  the  article,  the  cost  of  selling  it 
to  the  shopkeeper,  the  manufacturer's  profit,  the 
retailer's  profit,  and  the  cost  of  selling  it  to  the 
consumer.  The  first  of  these,  factory-cost,  is  made 
up  of  raw  material,  labour,  and  rent.  The  second, 
the  cost  of  selling  goods  to  the  retailer,  will  very 
likely  include  commissions  paid  to  a  jobber  or  middle- 
man, the  goods  being  bought  of  the  manufacturer 
by  a  middleman — the  Manchester  warehouseman, 
the  wholesale  druggist,  the  wholesale  grocer,  and  so 
on.     Or  they  may  be  sold  to  the  retailer  direct — 


ECONOMIC  JUSTIFICATION  OF  ADVERTISING      63 

more  often  thus  when  they  are  advertised  than  when 
they  are  not ;  but  there  is  as  yet  no  absolute  rule. 
Advertising  tends ^  however,  to  cut  out  the  middle- 
man, and  the  middleman  is  theoretically  an  economic 
waste,  though  he  isn't  really  always  that  in  practice. 
Other  selling-costs  to  the  trade  are  travellers'  and 
sales-managers'  salaries,  samples,  and  various  kinds 
of  organisation.  The  third  item,  the  manufacturer's 
profit,  depends  on  several  things.  If  he  has  a  patent, 
or  uses  patented  machinery  of  which  the  rights  are 
vested  in  himself,  he  may  obtain  a  reward  for  his 
ingenuity  as  an  inventor,  or  his  enterprise  in  buying 
an  inventor's  rights.  If  he  has  to  compete  in  the 
open  market  without  advertising  to  the  public,  his 
profit  will  be  determined  by  the  smallest  profit  with 
which  any  one  of  his  competitors  is  contented.  If 
he  has  an  advertised  trade-mark,  he  will  obtain 
the  reasonable  competitive  profit  on  a  standardised 
quality  of  his  goods,  and  they  will  not  cost  the 
consumer  any  more  because  they  are  advertised,  for 
reasons  which  will  develop  partly  now  and  partly 
in  my  fourth  Lecture. 

The  fourth  item  is  the  retailer's  profit.  This 
varies  a  good  deal  in  different  trades  and  on  different 
goods.  It  is  important  to  notice  his  gross  profits  as 
well  as  his  net  profits.  Before  a  single  yard  of  calico 
or  a  single  ounce  of  tea  has  been  sold,  it  has  cost  the 
draper  or  the  grocer  more  than  the  price  that  he 
pays  for  it.  The  retailer's  profit  is  not  the  difference 
between  wholesale  price  and  retail  price.  It  is  this 
difference,  diminished  by  what  it  costs  a  retailer  to 
keep  shop.  If  he  keeps  proper  accounts,  he  adds 
up  at  the  end  of  the  year  all  the  expenses  that  are 
not   directly  proportionate   to   sales.    He   adds   up 


64  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

rent,  rates  and  taxes,  light,  water,  assistants'  wages, 
cleaning,  deterioration  of  fittings,  bad  debts,  book- 
keeping and  so  on  ;  and  most  likely,  though  they 
are  more  directly  proportionate  to  sales,  he  adds  up 
paper,  string,  and  expense  of  delivery.  When  he 
has  made  a  total,  he  works  a  sum  in  proportion  and 
sets  down  the  fact  that  his  overhead  expenses,  as 
they  are  called,  are  so  much  per  cent.  It  is  said^ 
(for  example)  that  a  grocer's  overhead  expense  is 
somewhere  about  15  per  cent.  Now  if  a  grocer's 
average  gross  profit  on  turnover  is  20  per  cent. — 
and  I  am  told  it  is  a  little  under  this — obviously  his 
net  profit  is  not  very  large.  He  must  pay  himself 
for  his  devotion  to  the  business,  because  if  he  did 
not  stand  behind  the  counter  himself  he  would  have 
to  pay  some  one  else  to  do  it.  He  must  also  provide 
for  interest  on  his  capital  (whether  it  is  all  his  own 
or  partly  represented  by  an  overdraft)  before  he 
can  be  said  to  have  arrived  at  his  real  gains — the 
gains  out  of  which  he  must  live  and  educate  his 
children,  set  aside  a  little  something  for  old  age, 
put  a  shilling  in  the  offertory  on  Sundays,  and  con- 
tribute reasonably  to  public  and  private  charities. 
But  however  little  is  left  to  the  retailer,  it  is  obvious 
that  all  the  overhead  expenses,  as  well  as  all  his 
profit,  have  to  be  included  in  the  price  charged  for 
goods. 

1  Mr.  C.  L.  T.  Beeching,  F.G.I,,  secretary  of  the  Institute  of  Cer- 
tificated Grocers,  kindly  showed  me  a  form  of  trading  and  profit-and- 
loss  account  pubhshed  in  the  Grocer  Diary,  which  puts  the  gross  profit 
at  15*4  per  cent,  on  sales,  and  expenses  at  8 '4  per  cent.  He  tells  me 
that  in  his  opinion  this  estimate  was  a  httle  sanguine,  even  in  the  best 
days,  and  predicts  that  in  the  future,  a  single-shop  grocer  will  have 
to  spend  the  figure  named  in  the  text  (15  per  cent.),  which  means  that 
he  must  get  22  per  cent,  gross  profit  if  he  wants  to  make  the  7  per 
cent,  net  allowed  him  in  the  Diary  quoted.  The  quicker  turnover 
of  advertised  goods,  and  the  fact  that  most  of  them  bear  a  protected 
profit  of  25  per  cent,  or  upwards,  obviously  helps  the  grocer. 


ECONOMIC  JUSTIFICATION  OF  ADVERTISING      65 

Thus  the  fourth  and  the  fifth  elements  in  retail 
price — the  shopkeeper's  profit  and  his  selling- 
expenses — are  really  combined  in  one  item,  which 
is  the  difference  between  wholesale  price  and  retail 
price.  But  by  giving  prominence  to  goods  which 
are  advertised  and  therefore  sell  quickly,  and  by 
advertising  his  own  shop  to  bring  more  customers 
to  the  counter,  the  retailer  can  increase  his  turnover. 
His  overhead  charges  will  not  increase  in  proportion. 
Consequently,  he  will  be  able  either  to  make  more 
profit  for  himself,  or  else  charge  the  public  less. 
Unless  some  artificial  restraint  enables  him  to  charge 
more,  competition  will  compel  him  to  charge  less. 
If  there  is  artificial  maintenance  of  price,  competi- 
tion will  compel  him  to  give  better  service — quicker 
delivery,  better  and  more  numerous  assistants,  a 
more  luxurious  shop,  and  so  forth — all  of  which  are 
benefits  to  the  public. 

Where  does  this  bring  us  in  relation  to  Advertising 
and  the  price  of  goods  ?  It  brings  us  just  here.  An 
advertised  article  is  demanded  by  the  public.  Its 
sale  is  assured.  It  costs  less  to  sell  to  shopkeepers. 
The  manufacturer  has  no  occasion  to  send  out  highly- 
trained  travellers  to  induce  retailers  to  stock  it.  All 
he  has  to  do  is  to  give  them  such  service  and  credit 
as  will  make  them  trade  with  him.  Where  goods 
have  to  be  sold  to  the  trade  by  persuading  the  middle- 
man and  the  retailer  to  push  them,  the  expense  of 
this  persuasion  has  to  be  borne  by  the  consumer. 
In  the  retail  shop,  the  shopkeeper  must  find  customers 
for  the  unadvertised  article;  but  the  customers 
come  asking  for  the  advertised  article.  The  money 
invested  in  it  turns  over  more  quickly ;  and  a  retailer 
can  better  afford  to  sell  at  15  per  cent,  gross  profit 


66  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

an  article  of  which  the  whole  stock  is  cleared  and 
renewed  four  times  a  year,  than  he  can  afford  to  sell 
at  50  per  cent,  profit  an  article  that  only  sells  out 
once  a  year.  Obviously  it  is  an  economic  waste  for 
the  overhead  expenses  of  a  shop  to  cover  a  smaller 
turnover  than  the  shop  is  capable  of  handling ; 
and  this  economic  waste  tends  to  be  reduced  if  the 
turnover  is  made  larger  by  advertising. 

This  is  true  not  only  of  advertisements  paid  for  by 
manufacturers  to  promote  the  sale  of  their  goods, 
but  also  of  advertising  by  the  shopkeeper  himself  to 
bring  people  to  the  counter ;  and  you  have  only 
to  turn  your  eyes  to  the  daily  papers  in  order  to 
see  that  the  heaviest  advertisers  are  not  the  court 
dressmakers,  the  Savile  Row  tailors,  the  Bond  Street 
jewellers,  and  the  other  shops  where  the  prices  are 
high  and  business  slow,  but  the  shops  where  the 
people  go  for  their  food  and  raiment,  to  get  the  big 
values  for  their  money — the  Selfridges,  Sainsburys, 
Liptons,  Pearks's,  that  have  the  quick  turnover 
and  the  busy  shops.  The  time  when  the  popular 
drapery  shops  advertise  the  most,  is  (in  fact)  when 
they  reduce  their  prices  because  they  want  an  extra- 
quick  turnover,  to  clear  their  shelves  by  means  of 
the  January  and  July  sales.  The  saving  which  wide- 
awake housekeepers  effect  through  these  periodical 
sales,  and  through  Mr.  Selfridge's  almost  daily 
bargain  offers,  are  only  made  possible  by  Advertising, 
and  they  represent  a  real  reduction  of  price,  not 
by  cheapening  and  impoverishing  the  quality  of 
goods,  but  by  selling  the  same  goods  cheaper 
than  usual,  through  selling  them  in  enlarged 
quantities. 

And  similarly  in  manufacturing,  big  production 


ECONOMIC  JUSTIFICATION  OF  ADVERTISING      67 

means  lower  overhead  charges  and  fuller  use  of 
machinery,  enabling  goods  to  be  sold  cheaper  in 
competition  without  lowering  the  standard  of  quality. 
I  can  give  you  an  example  of  how  this  affects  the 
public  almost  at  the  door.  Go  down  the  Strand 
to  the  nearest  A. B.C.  shop,  and  you  will  find  on  the 
tariff  two  kinds  of  beef-tea.  One  kind,  described 
as  made  by  or  for  the  Aerated  Bread  Company,  is 
4^.  a  cup.  Bovril  is  3^.  a  cup.  Large  advertising 
and  large  production  save  you  that  penny.  It  cannot 
be  said  that  the  advertising  of  Bovril  is  an  economic 
waste. 

What  might  with  more  show  of  reason  be  said 
is  that  as  the  number  of  people  who  can  drink  beef- 
tea  or  cocoa,  or  smoke  cigarettes,  is  limited,  the 
expenditure  of  money  by  competing  manufacturers 
of  these  articles  cannot  serve  any  other  end  than 
that  of  directing  trade  from  one  of  them  to  another. 
But  the  fact  is  that  though  the  number  of  potential 
consumers  only  increases,  normally,  with  the  growth 
of  population,  the  advertising  of  any  one  brand  in 
any  class  of  goods  has  an  odd  way  of  increasing 
the  total  consumption  of  the  whole  class  of  goods. 
I  mention  cocoa  and  cigarettes  as  examples  for  the 
corrupt  reason  that  I  happen  to  have  figures  relating 
to  these  articles.  These  figures  show  the  increase  in 
imports  of  raw  and  prepared  cocoa  between  1889  and 
1 916.  About  the  beginning  of  that  period  a  new 
advertiser  of  cocoa  appeared  on  the  market,  and  his 
advertising  caused  the  old  Quaker  houses  to  increase 
their  advertising  very  considerably,  to  meet  the 
danger  which  they  apprehended  from  the  new 
and  aggressive  advertising.  The  effect  was  as 
follows : 


68  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

Imports  of  Cocoa  into  the  United  Kingdom 


Year. 

Pounds. 

Pounds  prepare 

Raw  Cocoa. 

Cocoa  or  Chocols 

1889 

26,509,791 

2,139,590 

1890 

28,112,210 

2,473,423 

1891 

31,282,598 

2,748,383 

1892 

30,839,525 

2,538,460 

1893 

32,982,005 

2,740,571 

1894 

39,ii5>963 

2,852,104 

1895 

42,769,307 

3,058,850 

1896 

38,281,803 

3,846,025 

1897 

34,533>38i 

9,068,176 

1898 

42,833,993 

8,127,191 

1899 

43,473,281 

5,262,394 

1900 

52,647,318 

7,860,966 

1901 

51,798,802 

8,390,286 

1902 

58,137,364 

8,748,353 

1903 

50,004,705 

10,446,713 

1904 

60,908,784 

10,619,652 

1905 

54,167,990 

9,054,386 

1906 

51,670,321 

9,173,580 

1907 

57,108,050 

11,389,807 

1908 

66,833,413 

10,765,503 

1909 

77,032,263 

11,672,675 

191O 

70,650,300 

15,118,208 

1911 

73,286,272 

16,731,299 

1912 

75,276,704 

23,670,640 

1913 

78,359,596 

27,605,984 

1914 

93,511,294 

22,969,296 

1915 

183,181,510 

36,700,720 

1916 

198,938,768 

29,874,880 

The  total  consumption  of  cocoa  largely  increased. 
The  apprehensive  advertisers  actually  profited  by 
the  expenditure  into  which  they  considered  them- 
selves forced.  Bournville,  the  beautiful  garden 
factory  in  which  the  enlightened  benevolence  of 
Mr.  Cadbury  is  expressed,  has  been  built  since  the 


ECONOMIC  JUSTIFICATION  OF  ADVERTISING      69 

new  competitor  arrived  on  the  scene ;  Messrs. 
Rowntree  at  York  and  Messrs.  Fry  at  Bristol  are 
more  famous  and  more  prosperous  than  ever.  Unless 
you  are  prepared  to  say  that  the  sale  of  cocoa  itself 
is  an  economic  waste,  you  cannot  say  this  of  the 
cocoa  advertisements.  The  other  example  is  more 
questionable  in  this  respect,  but  as  I  have  the  statistics 
I  will  show  them  to  you.  They  consist  of  two  sets 
of  figures,  showing  respectively  the  total  consumption 
of  pipe-tobacco  and  of  cigarettes  in  the  United 
States  from  1900  to  191 7. 


Consumption  of  Tobacco  and  of  Cigarettes  in 
THE  United  States,  1900  to  19 17 


Tobacco 

Cigarettes 

Year. 

Pounds, 

Year. 

1900 

278,977^035 

1900 

2,639,899,785 

1901 

294,101,715 

1901 

2,277,069,818 

1902 

298,048,339 

1902 

2,651,618,797 

1903 

310,667,865 

1903 

3,043,030,604 

1904 

328,650,710 

1904 

3>235,i03,87i 

1905 

334>849>iio 

1905 

3^376,633^673 

1906 

354>9i5,499 

1906 

3»792,759>903 

1907 

369,186,288 

1907 

5,166,941,756 

1908 

364,109,398 

1908 

5,402,345,198 

1909 

388,756,941 

1909 

6,105,424,173 

1910 

436,798,085 

191O 

7,874,239,863 

1911 

380,794,673 

1911 

9>254>35i,722 

1912 

393,785,146 

I912 

11.239,536,803 

1913 

404,362,620 

1913 

14,294,895,471 

1914 

412,505,213 

1914 

16,427,086,016 

1915 

402,474,245 

I915 

16,756,179,973 

1916 

417,235,928 

1916 

21,087,677,077 

1917 

445.763>2o6 

1917 

30,529,193,538 

Cigarettes  have,  of  course,  been  much  the  more 


70  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

heavily  advertised  of  the  two;  and  while  their  con- 
sumption has  increased  more  than  eleven  and  a  half 
times,  that  of  pipe  tobacco  has  not  nearly  doubled. 
You  may  say  that  this  is  attributable  to  a  change 
in  the  habits  of  the  people.  But,  if  so,  this  change 
is  surely  the  result  of  the  advertising.  The  cigarette 
was  hardly  known  in  this  country  until  the  advertising 
of  Richmond  Gem  cigarettes  by  my  old  master, 
the  late  John  Morgan  Richards,  about  1880.  But 
it  only  took  a  very  little  advertising  to  bring  the 
cigarette — the  Richmond  Gem  first,  and  then  a  whole 
crowd  of  others — into  popular  favour.  For,  as 
usual,  creating  a  demand  for  one  brand  created  a 
generic  demand.  Introducing  a  new  product  always 
has  this  effect ;  but  if  the  advertising  is  well  done, 
and  is  kept  up,  the  first  brand  captures  the  bulk 
of  the  trade. 

Its  only  danger  is  from  inferiority.  The  man 
who  thinks  that  once  he  has  introduced  an  article, 
he  can  afford  to  let  the  quality  down,  makes  a  fatal 
mistake.  So  he  does  if  he  neglects  any  opportunity 
to  improve  his  processes  and  his  product.  And 
that  is  one  of  the  economic  usefulnesses  of  Advertising. 
A  manufacturer  who  has  invested  money  in  advertis- 
ing his  product  has  the  whole  of  this  investment  at 
stake.  He  is  forced  by  self-interest  to  make  his 
product  as  good  as  it  always  was  :  he  is  forced  by 
the  competition  of  other  advertisers  to  improve 
it  if  he  can.  Where  goods  are  not  advertised,  there 
is  not  the  same  risk  attached  to  deterioration,  and 
indeed  (as  I  have  already  shown)  competition  in 
price  sometimes  actually  forces  deterioration  upon 
the  producer,  because  the  goods  have  no  standard. 

In  so  far  as  the  middleman  or  jobber  is  an  economic 


ECONOMIC  JUSTIFICATION  OF  ADVERTISING      71 

waste,  Advertising  tends  to  economic  gain.  It  is 
easier  for  the  advertiser  to  sell  direct  to  the  retailer 
than  for  the  other  man.  Quick  turnover  enables  the 
retailer  to  buy  in  large  quantities.  The  number  of  small 
parcels  transported  is  reduced — another  economic 
gain  which  must  be  credited  to  Advertising.  The 
very  small  retailers  will  buy  through  a  middleman, 
no  doubt ;  but  those  in  a  reasonably  large  way  of 
business  will  buy  direct  from  the  manufacturer ; 
and  packing-material,  freight,  and  cartage  will  be 
saved,  as  well  as  the  middleman's  profit. 

In  fact,  one  of  the  most  important  economies 
effected  by  Advertising  is  economy  in  trade-organisa- 
tion. When  the  heavy  expense  of  commercial 
travellers'  salaries,  commissions,  railway-fares,  and 
hotel-bills  is  considered,  and  the  indoor  expense  of 
sales-management,  correspondence,  and  samples  taken 
into  account,  it  is  easy  to  prove  the  economy  of 
Advertising,  because  these  expenses  can  always  be 
greatly  reduced  when  the  demand  for  the  goods 
comes  from  the  public  instead  of  from  the  retailer. 
It  is  unfortunate  that  precise  statistics  can  so  rarely 
be  obtained  in  this  country,  as  I  have  already  com- 
plained. I  am  obliged  to  go  to  America.  I  ask  you 
to  consider  the  extent  of  the  outgoings  just  mentioned, 
and  compare  the  cost  with  that  of  advertising. 
Some  investigations  in  the  United  States  last  year 
showed  the  following  percentages  of  advertising 
to  sales  in  nine  trades  : 

Seven  advertisers  of  food-stuffs  spent  for 
advertising  an  average  of  4*6  per  cent,  of  their 
sales. 

Three  advertisers  of  optical  goods  averaged 
7*3  per  cent. 


72  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

Three  advertisers  of  fountain  pens  averaged 
5*3  per  cent. 

Nine  advertisers  of  motor-cars  averaged  3*3 
per  cent. 

Seven  advertisers  of  motor-accessories  averaged 
4*2  per  cent. 

Six  advertisers  of  building  materials  (roofings, 
&c.)  averaged  2*4  per  cent. 

Three  advertisers  of  paints  and  varnish  averaged 
4  per  cent. 

Eight  advertisers  of  office  furniture  and  supplies 
averaged  5*1  per  cent. 

Four  advertisers  of  confectionery  averaged  8*1 
per  cent.i 

I  think  the  averages  in  the  United  Kingdom 
would  be  higher  than  these,  in  some  instances.  The 
American  public  responds  better  to  advertisement 
than  our  own.  In  1908,  the  California  Fruit  Growers' 
Exchange  began  to  advertise  oranges  in  the  United 
States  and  Canada.  In  ten  years  their  sales  of 
oranges  increased  80  per  cent.,  or  four  times  as 
rapidly  as  population;  and  the  cost  of  advertising 
was  only  1*157  P^^  cent,  of  the  gross  sales.  The 
advertising  of  lemons  was  only  begun  four  years 
ago ;  but  in  that  time  the  sales  have  increased 
45  per  cent.2  The  overhead  expenses  must  have 
been  greatly  reduced  in  proportion  to  output,  and 
prices  were  kept  down  by  the  competition  with 
imported  fruits. 

A  further  interesting  proof  of  the  economic  value 
of  Advertising  is  furnished  by  the  action  of  a  well- 
known  soap-manufacturer   in   Canada.      *  Comfort ' 

1  Printers'  Ink,  New  York,  July  ii,  1918. 

2  Ibid.,  New  York,  July  18,  1918. 


ECONOMIC  JUSTIFICATION  OF  ADVERTISING       73 

soap,  well  known  in  that  glorious  Dominion,  has  for 
many  years  been  sold  direct  by  means  of  what  are 
called  premiums.  A  list  of  articles,  more  or  less 
useful,  is  enclosed  with  each  box  of  soap,  and  these 
articles  are  exchangeable,  free  of  charge,  for  various 
numbers  of  tablet- wrappers.  Last  summer,  nearly  all 
of  these  articles  rose  to  prohibitive  prices.  The  manu- 
facturers of  the  soap  therefore  withdrew  the  gifts  and 
added  the  full  value  to  the  soap,  by  increasing  the 
weight  per  tablet.  At  the  same  time  they  embarked 
upon  a  very  large  and  costly  advertising  campaign, 
to  keep  up  the  sale  without  premiums.  But  they 
deducted  nothing  from  the  extra  weight  of  soap 
for  this,  evidently  and  rightly  considering  that  their 
advertisements  would  so  reduce  the  cost  of  distribu- 
tion (that  is,  of  selling  the  soap  to  consumers)  that 
they  could  save  the  whole  cost  of  the  advertisements. 
These  people  got  rid  of  so  uneconomic  and  waste- 
ful a  method  as  premiums — I  am  sure  you  will  agree 
that  the  premium  plan  is  uneconomic  and  wasteful — 
and  gave  back  the  whole  value  of  the  premium 
gifts,  so  that  their  advertising  does  not  cost  the 
consumer  a  penny.  This  is  a  striking  example  of 
the  economic  character  of  Advertising,  as  compared 
with  the  '  given  away  with  a  pound  of  tea  '  system. 
A  further  proof  of  this  is  that  the  most  liberal  adver- 
tising-expenditures are' those  made  in  the  selling  of 
just  such  articles  as  this — laundry  soaps,  cocoa,  beef- 
extracts,  margarine,  tea  and  so  forth — which  are 
sold  at  the  smallest  margins  of  profit.  If  adver- 
tising were  the  wasteful  and  uneconomic  expense 
which  it  is  said  by  its  adversaries  to  be,  you  WDuld 
expect  to  find  it  most  employed  on  articles  carry- 
ing a  large  percentage  of  profit,  out  of  which  the 


t» 


74  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

advertisements  would   be  paid  for,   instead  of  the 
exact  reverse. 

Just  one  other  economic  gain  due  to  Advertising 
must  be  mentioned.  Anything  is  economic  which 
prevents  waste.  In  manufacturing  processes,  very 
often  some  part  of  the  raw  material  is  left  when  the 
finished  article  has  been  turned  out,  and  this  is  either 
thrown  away  or,  at  the  very  best,  sold  as  waste- 
matter.  Many  meat-products,  for  instance,  are  used 
for  manure,  yielding  a  very  small  amount  of  profit 
to  the  seller  and  of  wealth  to  the  community.  But 
by  means  of  Advertising  it  has  happened  in  numer- 
ous instances  that  these  waste-matters  are  converted 
into  valuable  by-products,  just  as  gas  liquor,  which 
once  flowed  noisomely  into  the  canals,  now  yields 
enormous  wealth  in  dyes,  drugs,  and  dynamite.  You 
all  know,  I  expect,  the  household  article  called  Old 
Dutch  Cleanser.  This  is  a  by-product  of  a  factory 
where  bully-beef  and  other  meats  are  tinned.  The 
spare  fats  would  be  sold  and  turned  into  soap  in  any 
case  ;  but  these  would  not  have  yielded  the  same 
amount  of  wealth  as  they  do  by  being  turned  directly, 
and  without  waste  (because  there  is  no  time  for  them 
to  putrefy  and  become  partly  useless),  into  Old  Dutch 
Cleanser.  Advertising  actually  created  a  new  demand 
for  Old  Dutch,  which  could  not  have  been  sold 
without  it.  The  valuable  digestive  medicines  pepsin 
and  pancreatin  are  by-products  of  the  large-scale 
butcher.  Through  the  advertising  to  the  medical 
profession  of  these  medicaments,  and  compounds 
containing  them,  a  market  has  been  created  for  what 
was  formerly  thrown  away  as  useless.  Another 
market  for  pepsin  is  found  in  several  advertised  brands 
of  junket-powder  and  so-called  extract   of  rennet, 


ECONOMIC  JUSTIFICATION  OF  ADVERTISING      75 

for  making  the  delicious  Devonshire  junket — one 
of  the  most  digestible  forms  of  milk.  This  great 
boon  to  invalids  and  epicures  would  not  have  been 
nearly^  so  well  known,  but  for  the  advertising  of  a 
by-product.  Twenty  years  ago  very  few  people 
outside  Devonshire  knew  how  to  make  junket,  now 
a  familiar  dainty  in  homes  and  restaurants.  One 
large  meat  company  has  established  a  department  to 
advertise  tennis,  lacrosse,  and  badminton  rackets, 
hair-brushes  and  other  goods,  and  advertised  them, 
in  order  to  use  the  waste  gut  and  the  bristles.  So 
important  has  the  sale  of  advertised  by-products  from 
animal  carcases  become,  that  in  face  of  competition 
many  factories  could  not  now  make  a  profit  from  the 
sale  of  the  meat  alone.  Margarine  is  another  example 
of  these  by-products.  Fats  which  would  produce 
much  less  wealth  as  soap  are  made  into  oleo,  which 
forms  a  large  part  of  the  higher  grades  of  margarine  in 
combination  with  vegetable  fats. 

A  few  years  ago,  as  I  dare  say  many  of  you  will 
remember,  there  were  some  advertisements  of  coffee 
freed  from  the  alkaloid  caffeine,  to  which  evil  effects 
are  attributed.  The  coffee  smelt  and  tasted  like 
any  other  coffee  ;  but  it  was  really  a  by-product  of 
the  manufacture  of  caffeine.  This  alkaloid  was 
extracted  by  macerating  the  ground  coffee  in  ether. 
When  the  ether  had  dissolved-out  all  the  caffeine,  it 
evaporated,  leaving  the  aromatics,  for  which  coffee  is 
chiefly  enjoyed,  unchanged,  and  people  who  did  not 
mind  their  coffee  without  any  caffeine  found  it 
perfectly  satisfactory.  Another  economic  waste,  of 
a  kind,  was  thus  prevented. 

I  hope  not  to  have  wearied  you  too  much  by  my 
defence    of    Commercial   Advertising.     In    the   rest  ^ 


76  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

of  these  Lectures,  I  shall  try  to  talk  more  con- 
structively of  Advertising  in  its  varied  methods 
and  applications.  But  before  we  begin  this,  I 
hope  you  will  agree  with  me  that  it  was  necessary 
to  satisfy  our  consciences  as  to  the  economic  and 
commercial  soundness  of  it.  For  there  is  no  honest 
satisfaction  to  be  had  out  of  any  sort  of  business  in 
which  one  man,  or  a  class  of  men,  profits  without 
giving  back  to  the  community  service  which  is  worth 
the  money. 

It  is  not  irrelevant  to  mention  that  besides  helping 
the  trader  to  sell  at  smaller  expense  and  the  con- 
sumer to  buy  more  cheaply.  Advertising  does  some- 
thing for  us  when  we  are  neither  buying  nor  selling. 
It  confers  upon  us  a  number  of  advantages  of  which 
the  importance  is  recognised  when  we  answer  the 
question.  What  if  there  were  no  Advertising  ? 

If  Advertising  were  suppressed,  or  had  never 
existed,  we  should  rise  in  the  morning  to  shave 
without  a  safety-razor  and  fare  forth  to  our  work 
with  no  news  of  the  world's  happenings.  The  daily 
paper  could  not  exist.  We  should  have  to  resort  to 
some  place  where  bulletins  would  be  erected.  We 
should  never  know  in  any  real  detail  the  history  of 
our  times.  If  we  wanted  to  go  to  the  play  we  should 
have  to  send  a  telephone  message  to  all  the  theatres, 
to  find  out  what  was  on.  If  we  wanted  a  cellar  of 
coal,  we  should  have  to  send  round  for  prices.  With 
no  Advertising  there  would  be  no  uniformity.  Com- 
petition would  be  crippled.  The  same  would  happen 
with  the  prices — the  considerably  increased  prices — 
of  other  commodities,  all  of  which  would  be  almost 
entirely  unstandardised.  Every  vacant  piece  of 
land  in  a  town,  awaiting  the  builder,  would  be  foul 


ECONOMIC  JUSTIFICATION  OF  ADVERTISING      77 

with  refuse  and  dead  cats,  no  man  having  any  induce- 
ment to  wall-in  the  space  with  hoardings.  Finance 
would  be  paralysed,  because  without  daily  papers 
to  quotf"  stocks,  all  joint-stock  prices  would  be 
determined  by  professional  speculators.  Properties 
sold  by  auction  would  fetch  poor  prices :  for  buyers 
could  not  be  attracted.  London  would  be  a  very 
quiet  place,  and  its  inhabitants  very  uncivilised, 
for  a  large  part  of  the  comforts  and  conveniences 
supplied  by  modern  invention  and  marketed  by 
Advertising  would  never  have  been  created.  When 
you  hear  the  unreflecting  superior  person  talk  of  the 
wastes  of  Advertising,  remember  these  things.  There 
is  not  one  of  us  who  would  not  be  poorer  and  more 
ignorant  if  there  were  no  Advertising. 


LECTURE   II 

Advertising — Its  Functions  and  Policy 

Commercial  functions  of  Advertising — What  Advertising  will  sell- 
How  Advertising  affects  prices — Protection  without  a  tariff — 
Advertising  Policy  defined — Considerations  which  dictate  it — 
How  Advertising  maintains  quality — Examples  of  Advertising 
Policy — Mistaken  policy  used  by  insurance  advertisers — Ad- 
vertising problems  and  problems  solved  by  advertising — Un- 
expected profits  in  advertising — Advertisers  must  keep  faith  with 
the  public — The  three  functions  of  Advertising  :  to  create  a  new 
want ;  to  increase  the  sale  of  an  estabUshed  product ;  to  protect 
the  advertiser  against  competition — Introducing  a  new  invention  : 
a  practical  example — Merchandising  problems — Competing  with 
an  established  product :  example  of  Farrow's  Mustard — Press 
Advertising  to  secure  retail  distribution — The  Times  Book  Club — 
Maintaining  demand  for  an  advertised  product — Advertising  to 
increase  consumption — Ideas  more  important  than  expenditure 
— Who  pays  for  Advertising  ? — Cost  of  Advertising — Exact 
methods  of  Advertising — Statistical  devices  used  in  Advertising — 
Use  of  graphs  and  charts — Ratio  of  Advertising  to  sales — The 
Curve  of  Pursuit. 

HAVING  talked  at  some  length  last  week  in 
defence  of  Advertising,  my  duty  is  now 
to  discuss  the  more  practical  subject  of  its 
actual  functions,  purposes,  and  methods,  which  are 
commonly  grouped  together  and  described  as  Adver- 
tising Policy.  The  policy  behind  any  advertisement 
is  more  important  than  the  advertisement  itself. 

We  saw  last  week  the  economic  justification  of 
Advertising  in  its  power  of  making  possible  the 
introduction  of  desirable  inventions.  Many  of  these 
could  not  be  brought  forward  at  all  without  the 
guarantee  of  a  market  afforded  by  public  Advertising. 
We  saw  how  Advertising  removes  economic  wastes 
by  shortening  the  path  of  the  product  from  factory 
to  consumer  ;  we  saw  its  productive  value  in  manu- 
facture, where  it  enables  plant  to  be  used  more  hours, 

78 


ADVERTISING— ITS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY      79 

thus  economising  overhead  expense  and  deriving 
more  wealth  from  capital  invested  in  buildings 
and  machinery.  We  saw  how  small  a  proportion 
even  the  largest  advertising-appropriations  bear  to 
the  selling-value  of  popular  domestic  commodities, 
and  contemplated  for  a  moment  the  rigours  of  a 
world  without  Advertising  to  help  its  daily  work. 
Implicit  in  everything  which  was  said,  we  saw  that 
the  basis  of  successful  Advertising  was  honest  truth- 
telling.  We  are  now  to  consider,  with  examples, 
the  objects  contemplated  by  the  advertiser,  because 
the  policy  which  dictates  his  advertising  will 
dictate  also  the  practical  methods  proper  to  be 
employed. 

The  commercial  function  of  Advertising  is  to 
promote  the  sale  of  desirable  commodities  and 
utilities.  Not  only  merchandise,  but  services,  such  as 
insurance,  travel,  amusement,  education,  and  other 
abstract  things,  including  even  religious  teaching, 
are  advertised.  Among  the  economic  functions  of 
Advertising  which  justify  it  and  make  it  profitable, 
is  also  the  standardising  of  quality.  Advertising 
furnishes  the  consumer  with  a  species  of  guarantee, 
which  has  great  public  usefulness.  It  is  a  fact  to 
be  remarked,  that  although  Advertising  creates  a 
monopoly  in  the  brand  of  goods  which  it  sells,  this 
monopoly  is  used  more  often  to  protect  a  standard 
of  quality  than  to  sell  the  goods  dearer.  You 
cannot  buy  soap  equal  to  Sunlight  soap  any  cheaper, 
so  far  as  I  know,  than  Sunlight  soap  ;  nor  cocoa  equal 
to  Cadbury's  in  quality  any  cheaper  than  Cadbury's 
cocoa.  The  advertiser  may  be  able  to  get  a  little 
more  profit  for  the  guarantee  of  an  advertised  brand  ; 
but  anything  in  the  way  of  exorbitance  in  price  would 


^■:v 


8o  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

quickly  bring  its  own  punishment  :  *  So-and-so's 
goods  are  excellent,  but  I  cannot  afford  them.  They 
are  so  frightfully  dear.'  The  extra  profit  derived  by 
advertisers  is  obtained  by  increased  production, 
not  by  charging  more.^     ^      ^ 

Another  very  important  [function  of  Advertising 
is  protective  in  character.  It  conserves  the  Nation's 
trade,  thus  maintaining  wages  and  preventing  un- 
employment. The  race  for  cheapness,  combined  with 
the  technical  ignorance  of  buyers,  tends  to  degrade 
the  quality  of  merchandise  ;  then,  when  the  standard 
falls  below  a  certain  point,  the  British  manufacturer 
is  put  out  of  business  by  cheap  goods  dumped  upon 
his  market. 


*  A  friendly  and  most  capable  critic  remarked,  in  connection 
with  this  Lecture,  that  I  should  make  a  mistake  if  I  pushed  the  economic 
argument  for  advertised  goods  too  far.  He  said  that  unless  a  trade- 
mark enabled  the  owner  to  get  more  for  his  goods  than  open  competi- 
tion would  leave  him,  there  was  no  object  in  registering  a  trade-mark, 
and  that,  notoriously,  a  large  number  of  trade-marked,  and  therefore 
advertised,  goods  fetched  a  higher  price  because  of  the  monopoly  which 
Advertising  created. 

It  is  desirable  to  answer  this  criticism.  No  one  pretends  that 
advertisers  spend  their  money  for  the  pleasure  of  getting  rid  of  it. 
But  the  object  of  advertising  is  not  to  increase  a  man's  prices,  but  to 
increase  his  turnover  j  and  overcharging  would  defeat  this  object.  If 
a  commodity  sold  under  an  advertised  brand,  at  a  higher  rate  than 
unbranded  stufif  sold  from  bulk  or  in  the  piece,  were  no  better,  the 
public  would  find  this  out.  Neither  advertising  nor  a  trade-mark 
will  save  a  manufacturer  from  competition.  Numerous  advertised 
commodities  are  just  as  cheap  as  the  unadvertised  commodities  of 
the  same  class,  as  I  mentioned  with  instances.  For  numerous  other 
advertised  commodities  the  public  pays  an  advanced,  and  even  a 
considerably  advanced,  price,  knowing  this  perfectly  well,  and  paying 
the  price  for  the  sake  of  the  standard  quahty  which  can  only  thus  be 
assured.  A  tabloid  of  medicine  (Burroughs  Wellcome  &  Co.'s 
advertised  trade-mark)  is  the  same  in  Plymouth  or  Peebles  or  Pata- 
gonia. A  powder  of  the  same  drug,  without  any  brand,  may  vary 
indefinitely  in  quality.  A  pound  of  coffee  from  the  grocer's  canister 
is  just  as  good  as  the  grocer  thinks  it  needs  to  be  in  order  to  hold  his 
trade.  A  pound  of  Ridgway's  A.D.  Coffee  is  the  same  wherever  you 
buy  it  5  and  if  it  were  not  fully  worth  its  price,  the  more  discriminating 
buyers  would  soon  tell  the  others. 

On  the  other  hand,  many  classes  of  unadvertised  articles,  because 
they  sell  very  slowly,  carry  an  enormous  retail  profit,  I  instanced 
jewellery,  china,  and  glass  in  Lecture  IV, 


ADVERTISING— ITS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY      8i 

It  is  not  always  a  manufacturer's  fault  if  the 
quality  of  his  output  deteriorates.  Without  Advertis- 
ing, indeed,  there  is  a  direct  tendency  for  it  to  do  so. 
The  demand  for  cheapness,  fostered  by  competition 
among  shopkeepers,  forces  shopkeepers  to  buy 
everything  at  the  lowest  price  they  can.  Competition 
among  manufacturers  for  the  favour  of  retailers,  of 
course,  helps  shopkeepers  to  buy  cheaply  ;  and  they 
will  favour  goods  which,  by  being  almost  imper- 
ceptibly inferior,  can  be  sold  at  prices  enabling  them 
to  defeat  their  competitors.  The  tendency  of  prices 
to  a  minimum  begins  by  curtailing  retailers'  profits  ; 
but  there  will  always  be  a  time  when  prices  have  been 
cut  as  low  as  the  cost  of  keeping  shop  will  allow 
Having  surrendered  as  much  of  his  own  profit  as 
he  can  afford  to  give  up,  a  retailer  will  presently 
begin  to  tamper  wilfully  with  quality.  Of  course, 
he  risks  losing  some  of  his  customers  ■  thereby ; 
but  cheapness  must  be  attained,  or  he  will  not  have 
any  customers  at  all.  The  consequence  is  that 
manufacturers  suffer  by  the  competition  of  imports 
from  countries  where  wages  are  lower,  or  where 
imitation  just  outside  the  limits  of  punishable  fraud 
has  been  elevated  into  a  system.  Herein  the  German 
is  a  master  of  craft.  Some  of  his  imitations  deceive 
the  public,  and  the  public  cannot  protect  itself 
in  the  case  of  bulk-  or  piece-goods  without  a  brand. 
The  consequence  has  often  been  the  deterioration 
of  our  manufacturers'  output,  in  their  effort  to  fight 
unfair  competition.  The  manufacturer  who  adver- 
tises his  brand  is  relieved  of  such  temptation,  and 
as  the  public,  after  all,  will  pay  an  honest  price 
for  an  honest  article,  we  find  one  function  of 
Advertising   to  be  (as  I  said)  protective;    but  the 


82  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

protection  which  it  affords  is  Protection  without 
Tariff. 

These  are  economic  functions  of  Advertising. 
To-night,  I  am  going  to  talk  about  its  commercial 
functions.  Hitherto,  I  have  been  concerned  to  prove 
that  Advertising  is  a  good  thing  for  the  community. 
Now  I  am  going  to  show  how  to  make  it  a  good 
thing  for  the  advertiser. 

In  order  that  it  may  be  so,  it  is  very  desirable  that 
the  advertisements  should  have  a  settled  policy 
behind  them.  I  have  already  said  that  this  policy 
is  far  more  important  than  the  advertisements  them- 
selves. What  I  mean  by  the  word  '  policy '  is  the 
plan  on  which  the  advertising  is  based.  The  more 
definite  your  policy,  the  more  likely  you  are  to 
succeed.  I  recommend  advertisers  who  consult  me 
in  my  professional  capacity,  to  make  a  written 
statement  of  policy.  This  is  for  the  sake  of  definite- 
ness.  You  know  that  Bacon  said,  *  Reading  maketh 
a  full  man  ;  conference  maketh  a  ready  man  ;  writing 
maketh  an  exact  man.'  If  your  policy  will  not  go 
down  in  black  and  white,  depend  upon  it,  there  is 
something  wrong  with  your  policy. 

The  policy  behind  your  advertising  may  be 
dictated  by  any  one  of  several  considerations.  It 
may  be  dictated  either  by  the  special  merit  of  your 
wares  or  your  shop,  or  by  the  special  plan  which  you 
are  going  to  adopt  in  selling.  It  is  of  little  use  to 
say  that  your  goods  are  meritorious  unless  you  give 
reasons.  People  will  not  believe  your  bare  state- 
ment. But  you  can  convince  them  by  your  reasons 
for  the  bare  statement.  For  example,  one  man  may 
base  his  claim  on  the  way  in  which  his  goods  are 
manufactured.     His   Advertising   may  be  a  factory 


ADVERTISING-ITS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY      83 

story,  as  advertising-men  say.  If  you  were  selling 
something  to  'eat  which  is  very  much  like  a  number 
of  competing  articles,  such  as  tinned  meat  or  fruits, 
it  would  perhaps  be  very  difficult  to  specify  any  recog- 
nisable difference  in  the  goods.  But  you  might  do 
what  an  advertiser  should  always  be  trying  to  do — 
namely,  to  put  himself  into  a  class  apart  from  his 
competitors — by  making  a  feature  of  the  beautiful 
cleanliness  of  your  factory,  its  tiled  kitchens,  its 
spotless  packing-rooms,  the  floods  of  sunlight  and 
fresh  water,  the  washing-room  where  all  the  opera- 
tives wash  and  put  on  clean  overalls  and  slippers, 
before  being  allowed  to  enter  the  sacred  interior, 
even  then,  never  allowing  a  hand  to  touch  the  food ; 
and  so  forth.  It  is  always  desirable  to  have  some 
distinctive  point  to  talk  about.  Then  you  can  be 
assured  that  when  people  buy  your  goods  they  buy 
them  for  the  right  reason,  and  presumably  will  be 
content  with  them,  go  on  using  them,  and  recommend 
them  to  others.  The  policy  behind  two  articles, 
used  in  exactly  the  same  way  and  for  the  same 
purpose,  may  be  quite  different.  On  the  face  of 
it,  you  would  say  that  Walker's  whisky  and  Haig 
&  Haig's  required  the  same  advertising  policy. 
Anyone  can  see  that  the  distillers  of  them  do  not 
think  so.  Similarly,  Symington's  soups  and  Gong 
soups  may  seem  so  much  in  the  same  line  that  they 
could  only  be  advertised  in  one  way ;  but  they  are 
not.  The  manufacturers  of  Gong  soups  try  to  raise 
their  class  of  customers.  That  is  a  definite  line  of 
policy.  The  distinctive  merit  advertised  in  con- 
nection with  the  Auto-Strop  razor  is  that  it  is  easy 
to  strop — you  can  strop  it  every  day.  The  distinc- 
tive merit  claimed  for  the  Gillette  razor  is   that   it 


84  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

does  not  need  any  stropping.  The  distinctive  merit 
claimed  for  the  Twinplex  stropper  is  that  it  does 
strop  a  Gillette  blade. 

Allied  to  a  policy  of  this  kind  is  a  policy  of  giving 
reasons  why  people  should  buy  a  given  commodity. 
Throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  wonderful  War 
Bond  advertising  campaign,  the  policy  was  to  show 
people  that  they  ought  to  buy  War  Bonds  to  help 
their  sons  and  the  brethren  of  all  of  us  to  win  the 
War.  When  the  Armistice  came,  a  new  policy  was 
developed  at  once  :  it  was  a  policy  of  pointing  out 
that  War  Bonds  were  a  magnificent  investment, 
which  would  not  be  long  available.  Of  course  the 
security  and  the  high  interest  were  used  as  secondary 
points  all  along  ;  but  the  duty-argument  was  the 
leading  feature  in  the  advertising  policy,  until  the 
Armistice  came. 

Insurance  companies,  whose  advertising  is  usually 
very  poor,  adopt  as  a  rule  the  policy  of  proving  that 
they  are  sound.  They  appear  to  believe  that  when  a 
man  thinks  of  insuring  his  life  or  his  house,  he  is  con- 
cerned lest  the  money  would  not  be  forthcoming  when 
claimed.  I  do  not  think  this  is  a  sound  policy.  I  think 
people  believe  all  insurance  companies  sound.  The 
recent  bold  advertising  of  the  All-in  Insurance  adopts 
a  totally  different  plan — the  right  plan,  as  I  think.  It 
makes  a  feature  of  the  risks  which  you  avoid  through 
insurance,  and  the  advantages  of  an  inclusive  con- 
tract insuring  against  all  of  them.  The  old  Equitable 
Life  Insurance  Company,  like  the  All-in  people — the 
British  Dominions  Company — makes  no  feature  of  its 
reserves  and  its  stability  (these  are  taken  for  granted), 
but  quotes  typical  instances  of  people  who  insured  on 
the  mutual,  or  profit-sharing  plan,  and  secured  for 


ADVERTISING— ITS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY         85 

their  survivors  two  or  three  times  the  amount  insured 
and  four  or  five  times,  perhaps,  the  amount  paid  in 
premiums.  Either  of  these  is  a  sound  policy  of 
insurance-advertising. 

Your  policy  may  be,  again,  to  change  certain 
habits  of  the  public.  Suppose  you  have  a  seasonal 
trade — selling  only  during  six  months  of  the  year — 
you  may  try  to  extend  the  demand  to  the  entire 
year.  Some  years  ago,  Bovril  Limited  did  some 
advertising  of  this  kind,  suggesting  that  Bovril-and- 
soda  was  a  nice  summer  drink.  A  manufacturer 
of  cocoa  who  invented  a  new  time  at  which  people 
could  drink  cocoa  would  reach  an  entirely  new  public, 
and  thus  increase  the  sale  of  all  cocoas  further  still 
beyond  what  I  demonstrated  last  week.  As  it  is, 
cocoa  is  chiefly  drunk  by  the  working  classes,  who 
take  it  for  breakfast,  eleven  o'clock  lunch,  or  supper. 
The  less  active  part  of  the  community  needs  tea  at 
breakfast,  and  does  not  take  the  eleven  o'clock  lunch 
which  the  working  man  apparently  still  wants  to 
retain  while  striking  for  a  forty-four  or  a  forty-hour 
week.  1  shall  have  something  to  say  about  the  policy 
of  advertising  new  uses  for  your  product  later  on. 

On  the  other  hand,  your  advertising  policy  may 
be  dictated  by  something  in  your  selling-plan.  You 
may  be  selling  cheaper  than  other  people.  You 
may  be  taking  the  money  by  instalments,  instead 
of  all  in  one  sum.  A  shop  may  make  a  feature  of 
general  cheapness — as  in  Mr.  Selfridge's  claim, 
'  London's  lowest  prices  always ',  or  the  chain  of 
provision  shops  which  claim  to  be  *  the  first  to  lower 
prices  '  ;  or  it  may  make  a  feature  of  bargains  in 
a  particular  part  of  the  premises  or  at  a  particular 
time  of  day,  like  the  midday-hour  bargains  advertised 


86  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

by  D.  H.  Evans  &  Co.  a  few  years  ago,  and  Mr. 
Selfridge's  Saturday  morning  bargains  at  present. 

The  policy  is  sometimes  changed,  because  of 
changing  conditions,  or  merely  because  it  seems  time 
to  try  a  new  line  of  approach.  Some  years  ago  the 
advertising  manager  of  Rowntree's  cocoa  tried  a 
new  line :  he  made  a  feature  of  Flavour.  He 
advertised  the  flavour  rather  than  the  cocoa,  in  a 
sense.  Until  then,  cocoa  was  chiefly  advertised  in 
a  very  general  sort  of  way — nothing  particular  was 
said  to  show  how  one  cocoa  differed  from  another, 
just  as  Pears'  soap  was  chiefly  advertised  merely 
as  soap.  Even  the  feature  of  transparency  was  not 
made  much  of.  Really,  there  is  always  a  feature  of  dis- 
tinction somewhere,  if  you  will  look  for  it  hard  enough. 
The  only  cocoa  that  had  stood  out  from  others  was 
Dr.  Tibbies'.  The  policy  here  was  to  sell  certain 
other  things — coca  and  kola — added  to  the  cocoa. 
Tibbies'  cocoa — the  new  cocoa  whose  advent  started 
the  old  cocoa  houses  on  their  long  course  of  extended 
advertising — was  advertised  like  a  patent  medicine. 
That  was  a  difference  in  policy.  Another  change 
of  policy  occurred  when  the  Bovril  advertising  was 
all  devoted  to  proving  that  when  invalids  took 
Bovril  they  gained  weight. 

Again,  your  policy  may  be  dictated  by  the  fact 
that  you  have  sold  an  article  which  lasts  a  long  time, 
and  want  to  do  some  more  trade  with  the  purchasers 
by  selling  supplies  to  go  with  it.  You  may  have 
sold  them  a  gramophone,  and  thereby  created  a 
market  for  records  ;  or  a  player-piano,  and  thereby 
created  a  market  for  music-rolls  ;  or  a  camera,  and 
thereby  created  a  market  for  films.  Sometimes  it 
is  profitable  to  sell  the  main  product  rather  cheaply, 


ADVERTISING— ITS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY      87 

because  of  the  continued  demand  for  supplies  which 
it  enables  you  to  cultivate.  Then,  you  will  advertise 
the  use  of  the  article  which  you  have  sold,  rather 
than  the  article  itself. 

Indeed,  it  is  very  often  a  good  line  of  policy  to 
advertise  the  use,  rather  than  the  thing  itself,  in  any 
event.  By  doing  this,  you  direct  attention  towards 
the  advantages  or  the  pleasure  derived  from  it,  and 
away  from  the  price.  I  have  always  contended  that 
the  way  to  advertise  player-pianos  is  to  advertise 
the  pleasures  of  music,  which  do  not  sound  expensive, 
rather  than  the  piano  itself,  which  does.  The  subject 
is  almost  inexhaustible. 

To-night,  in  talking  of  advertising  policy,  I 
want  you  to  let  me  be  very  informal.  It  is  im- 
possible to  lay  down  rules  and  regulations  for  a  thing 
so  infinitely  varied  as  the  conception  of  advertising 
plans.  You  might  as  well  try  to  reduce  the  art  of 
painting  to  a  series  of  exact  proportions  like  the 
multiplication  table,  or  compose  sonatas  with  a  ready 
reckoner.  Moreover,  the  subject  is  so  extensive 
that  it  could  not  be  all  covered  in  a  hundred  speeches 
like  this.  I  can  only  offer  you  some  examples  of 
the  functions  of  Advertising,  and  tell  you  some  true 
stories  about  them,  if  I  may. 

For  instance.  Advertising  may  be  the  obvious 
solution  of  a  commercial  problem,  or  it  may  be  an 
ingenious  way  out  of  a  difficulty.  One  very  im- 
portant firm,  during  the  War,  desired  to  attract  the 
attention  of  a  certain  Government  Department. 
It  was  selling  its  products  to  two  Ministries,  but 
could  not  get  a  foothold  in  one  of  the  others.  By  my 
suggestion,  a  whole-page  advertisement  was  inserted 
in  The  Times,  addressed  to  the  Minister  concerned. 


88  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

I  am  telling  no  secrets,  since  I  have  mentioned  no 
names,  when  I  say  that  it  effected  its  purpose.     A 
rather  amusing  instance  of  special  problems  solved 
by  Advertising  occurred,   a  good  many  years  ago, 
also   within  my  experience.     A  London  firm,  with 
which  I  was   connected,   had  been  for  some  time 
importing   considerable    quantities    of   water-ground 
mica,  used  in  the  manufacture  of  wall-paper.     Some- 
times it  would  happen  that  a  few  barrels  would  be 
shipped,  in  which  the  mineral  had  been  ground  to  a 
grade  of  fineness  different  from  the  rest,  and  these 
samples  proved  unsuitable  to  the  ordinary  uses  of 
ground  mica.     By   degrees    several   hundredweights 
of   utterly   unsaleable   mica   thus   accumulated.     It 
was  not  worth  the  freight  of  re-shipment ;   and  you 
will  find,  if  you  try  it,  that  to  dispose  of  a  large 
quantity  of  an  insoluble,  incombustible,  and  entirely 
useless   substance  by  throwing  it  away  is  no  very 
simple  task.     When  the  quantity  accumulated  had 
become  embarrassing,  the  importers  began  to  cast 
about   for   some   means   of  getting   rid   of  it.     The 
idea  was  suggested  to  them  of  packing  the  rejected 
mica  in  small  boxes,  and  advertising  it  for  decorating 
Christmas-trees   and  the  like,  at  sixpence  a  box — 
water-ground  mica  being  a  light,  impalpable  powder, 
very  like  snow.     To  keep  the  packages  thus  adver- 
tised within  reasonable  limits  of  size,  the  quantity 
given  for  sixpence  raised  the  price  to  many  times 
the    rate   paid   by  wall-paper   manufacturers.     But 
advertised  as  '  Jack  Frost '  with  an  attractive  label, 
it  was  so  gladly  received  by  the  public  that   the 
rejected  accumulation  was  soon  worked  off  at  a  very 
large  profit.     What  is  more,  the  importers,  during 
several   successive   Christmas  seasons,  were   obliged 


ADVERTISING— ITS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY      89 

to  use  up  many  barrels  of  their  ordinary  merchant- 
able mica  as '  Jack  Frost '  in  order  to  meet  the  demand. 

That  is  the  way  with  Advertising.  Very  often 
a  man  is  drawn  into  it  unwillingly,  to  meet  a  special 
emergency,  and,  to  his  surprise,  finds  unexpected 
profits  besides.  The  effects  are  sometimes  em- 
barrassing. A  publisher  whom  I  know  was  selling 
a  standard  work  in  several  volumes,  strongly  bound 
with  leather  backs.  As  will  often  happen  when  a 
light-coloured  leather  is  chosen  for  this  purpose,  some 
of  the  volumes  now  and  then  faded  a  little,  or  were 
a  bad  match,  and  my  friend's  manager  would  put 
away  these  sets,  hoping  to  match  them  up  later  on. 
Presently  there  was  an  accumulation  of  a  dozen 
sets  or  more  of  an  expensive  work.  The  publisher 
therefore  determined  to  advertise  these  imperfect 
sets  at  a  slightly  reduced  price.  (He  took  care  that 
there  should  still  be  a  little  profit.)  But  when  the 
advertisements  appeared,  he  received  orders  not 
merely  for  the  dozen  of  sets  which  he  wanted  to  sell, 
but  for  something  over  a  hundred  sets,  and  he  was 
reduced  to  the  necessity  of  selling  perfectly  good 
and  well-matched  sets  at  the  reduced  price,  hoping 
that  the  buyers  would  manage  to  discover  some 
slight  shades  of  difference. 

Having  advertised  the  books,  he  had  to  deliver 
the  goods.  And  this  illustrated  an  important  point 
in  advertising-policy.  If  you  do  not  want  your 
advertising  to  do  harm  instead  of  good,  you  must 
never,  on  any  excuse,  break  faith  with  your  public. 
A  few  years  ago,  in  some  articles  contributed  to  the 
Standard,  I  gave  an  example  of  this.  A  certain  large 
shop  advertised  at  sale  time  a  parcel  of  500  parasols 
at  5i".  11^.     By  a  typographical  error,  the  5^-.  fell  out 


90  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

of  the  printer's  forme,  and  the  parasols  appeared  to 
be  offered  at  only  iid.  The  shopkeeper  had  the 
wisdom  and  breadth  of  mind  to  give  orders  that, 
although  a  mistake  had  been  made,  his  printed 
promise  should  be  kept.  And  he  had  to  make  up 
his  mind  early ;  for  before  ten  o'clock  on  the  day 
when  the  advertisement  appeared,  the  whole  500 
parasols  had  been  demanded  and  bought  ! 

The    most    important    of    the   routine    functions 
of  Advertising  are  these  three  : 
To  create  a  new  want ; 

To  increase  the  sale  of  an  established  product ;  and 

To  protect  the  advertiser  against  the  effects  of 

competition. 

Each    of    these    functions  will    be    subserved    by    a 

different  kind  of  policy  in  the  scheme  of  Advertising. 

Taking  these  in  order,  it  may  be  said  that  the 

first  is  the  most  profitable  use  of  Advertising.     The 

advertiser    who    introduces    an    entire    novelty   not 

only  has  the  monopoly  of  it — for  a  time,  at  all  events 

— but  commonly  puts  himself  in  such  a  position  of 

authority   that   his    article    becomes    the    standard. 

Anyway,  it  is  his  own  fault  if  it  does  not. 

When  you  have  to  introduce  a  new  invention, 
you  will  be  wise  if  you  invent,  or  pay  some  one  else 
to  invent,  a  new  name  also.  If  it  is  a  specially 
good  name  there  may  be  what  people  call  a  fortune 
in  it,  though  the  best  name  in  the  world  is  only  a 
potential  fortune  in  itself,  unless  it  has  a  good  article 
and  good  Advertising  behind  it.  For  reasons  which 
will  appear  in  my  fourth  Lecture,  the  trade-mark 
word  '  Tabloid '  is  one  of  the  finest  name-marks  ever 
invented.  But  it  took  more  than  a  good  word  to 
build  up  the  large  business  of  the  firm  that  owns  it. 


ADVERTISING— ITS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY      91 

When  introdiKing  an  entirely  new  invention, 
the  function  of  Advertising  is  to  create  a  new  want. 
I  called  this  the  most  profitable  Advertising,  because 
if  there  is  a  real  utility  to  be  oflFered,  the  pioneer 
has  a  temporary  monopoly.  It  is  also,  in  some 
respects,  the  least  difficult  kind  of  advertising  to 
plan  and  to  write,  because  the  advertisements 
have  the  nature  of  news.  Take  an  article  like 
the  vacuum-cleaner,  for  example.  When  domestic 
vacuum-cleaners  were  first  introduced,  people  were 
intensely  interested  in  them.  At  places  like  the 
Ideal  Home  Exhibition,  there  was  always  a  crowd 
round  the  demonstration-stand.  The  advertise- 
ments in  the  papers  were  eagerly  read,  and  the  effect 
was  that  retailers  were  easily  induced  to  demon- 
strate the  machine  and  introduce  it  to  a  public 
which  was  already  interested,  already  ripe  for  the 
salesman's  harvest. 

But  it  is  a  long  time  since  vacuum-cleaners  came 
in,  and  I  want  to  give  you  a  constructive  example  of 
introductory  advertising.  In  order  to  do  this,  I  am 
going  to  sketch  for  you,  very  briefly,  the  considera- 
tions which  might  determine  the  policy  to  be  adopted 
in  advertising  an  entirely  imaginary  product.  This 
can  only  be  done  in  a  very  rudimentary  way,  very 
briefly,  to  a  very  limited  extent.  My  sketch  will  be 
especially  imperfect  in  one  particular.  In  any  real 
campaign,  you  would  be  certain  to  meet  with  perfectly 
unforeseen  and  unforeseeable  difficulties,  and  to 
exercise  your  ingenuity  in  fighting  them.  You 
would  sometimes  make  a  mistake,  too,  either  in  your 
appeal  to  the  consumer  or  in  your  effort  at  obtaining 
trade  organisation,  and  your  ingenuity  would  again 
be  exercised  in  curing  the  effects  of  your  own  blunder. 


92  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

You  would  have  to  change  your  plans,  perhaps  at 
very  considerable  expense  and  inconvenience.  Or 
you  would  find  someone  in  the  trade  operating  in 
a  way  to  defeat  your  scheme  in  some  manner,  and 
would  have  to  invent  a  checkmate.  We  must  do 
without  these  hazards  and  consider  only  the  pre- 
determined line  of  advance  ;  I  make  the  formidable 
assumption  that  everything  worked  without  a  hitch. 
It  is  difficult  enough  even  then.  You  will  never 
go  very  far  in  Advertising  without  taking  a  lot  of 
trouble.  Industry  and  perseverance  are  quite  as 
important  as  money. 

For  the  purposes  of  this  illustration,  I  am  going 
to  imagine  that  you  have  invented  a  contrivance  that 
could  be  plugged  to  the  electric-light  socket,  and 
made  to  clean  windows,  inside  and  out,  without 
trouble.  You  have  to  devise  a  plan  to  sell  this 
thing. 

It  is  a  very  desirable,  and  probably  quite  ex- 
travagantly impracticable  invention.  But  your  imagi- 
nation will  come  to  my  aid  in  conceiving  it.  One 
problem  in  framing  your  policy  here  would  be  the 
copy-problem — to  find  the  most  efficient  angle  of 
approach  in  your  announcements.  Another  would 
be  the  merchandising  problem — to  obtain  retail 
co-operation.  The  second  is  the  more  difficult.  I 
do  not  think  there  would  be  any  difficulty  in  writing 
advertisements  that  would  awaken  the  desire  of 
housewives  to  be  rid  for  ever  of  the  peripatetic 
window-cleaning  company's  men.  The  problem,  of 
course,  would  be  more  than  that.  You  would  have 
not  merely  to  awaken  their  desire,  but  to  overcome 
their  natural  objection  against  parting  with  the 
money  required  in  order  to  gratify  it.     This  is  more 


ADVERTISING— ITS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY      93 

than  a  copy-problem  ;  it  is  a  problem  of  advertising- 
policy.  You  would  have  to  risk  a  good  deal  on  your 
judgment  of  the  best  angle  of  approach.  By  the 
angle  of  approach,  I  mean  the  selling-point  to  be 
chiefly  insisted  upon.  Three  points  might  suggest 
themselves  to  you — arguing  from  economy,  effici- 
ency, or  convenience.  You  might  decide  to  risk 
some  money  on  the  economy  point.  Now  consider 
the  structure  of  your  advertisement  copy.  It  costs  so 
much  a  week  to  have  windows  cleaned  by  a  company. 
The  servants  won't  do  it — nowadays.  The  machine 
costs  so  much.  After  such-and-such  a  period,  the 
machine  would  have  paid  for  itself,  by  saving  what 
would  have  had  to  be  paid  to  the  contractor  :  and 
for  the  rest  of  the  buyer's  life  he  would  have  clean 
windows  for  nothing.  Not  only  that,  but  they 
would  be  cleaner  windows,  because  he  could  have 
them  cleaned  every  day  if  he  liked.  Or  you  could 
argue  that  the  machine  would  last  twenty  years, 
and  the  cost  of  the  extra  efficiency  spread  on  that 
period  will  be  practically  nil. 

This  would  be  one  angle  of  approach.  But  it 
might  be  more  promising — especially  if  the  price 
were  too  high  to  make  the  economy  argument 
defensible — to  use  the  argument  from  efficiency  : 
proving  that  the  machine  would  clean  windows 
and  polish  them  better  than  they  could  be  cleaned  and 
polished  by  hand.  Moreover  (you  would  argue), 
they  could  be  cleaned  oftener  :  and  so  on,  as  in  the 
first  approach. 

The  argument  from  convenience  would  be  a  little 
different — appealing  to  people's  laziness  and  their 
dislike  of  having  to  make  servants  do  what  servants 
don't  want  to  do,  or  put  up  with  the  nuisance  of  the 


94  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

contractor's  men.  You  would  put  the  case  thus  : 
Servants  do  not  like  having  to  clean  windows.  Some 
windows  are,  moreover,  dangerous.  The  window- 
cleaning  company's  men  are  not  very  desirable 
visitors.  They  themselves  are  not  so  clean  as  they 
make  the  windows,  and  they  don't  make  these  very 
clean  either.  They  need  someone  to  go  round  the 
house  with  them  and  see  that  they  do  not  steal. 
(You  know  they  will  steal  almost  anything.  One  of 
them  in  my  house  even  stole  a  tooth-brush — an 
article  for  which  one  would  never  have  suspected  that 
the  sort  of  people  who  come  to  clean  windows  had 
any  great  use.)  Other  lines  of  argument  would 
suggest  themselves  when  you  studied  the  machine 
and  fiddled  with  it  to  get  an  idea  of  its  working — 
the  only  real  way  to  obtain  inspiration  for  advertise- 
ment-writing, as  I  shall  show  you  in  another  Lecture 
next  week. 

These  advertisements  to  the  public  of  your  patent 
window-cleaner — whatever  line  of  argument  you 
employed — would  only  appear  after  you  had  used 
special  trade  advertising,  to  induce  retailers  to  carry 
the  machine  in  stock  and  push  it.  The  best  way  to 
advertise  a  product  to  the  shopkeeper  is  to  show  him 
how  to  sell  it,  and  assist  him  to  do  so.  You  would 
send  men  to  explain  the  working  of  the  machine  to 
the  retailer's  salesmen,  so  that  they  could  demon- 
strate it.  Probably  you  would  try  to  induce  each 
retailer  to  set  aside  six  days  as  demonstration  week, 
when  people  could  come  to  a  special  part  of  the 
shop,  set  aside  for  the  purpose,  to  see  it  work — or 
possibly  he  would  even  send  a  man  to  people's  houses, 
to  clean  a  few  windows  free  of  charge.  You  would 
also  furnish  him  with    show-cards  and  pamphlets, 


ADVERTISING— ITS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY      95 

folders,  and  othcR  printed  matter,  for  distribution 
to  customers,  and  otherwise  assist  him  in  making 
a  profit  out  of  your  invention.  This  would  all  be 
done  by  means  of  circulars  and  trade-paper 
advertising,  followed  up  by  travellers. 

In  many  kinds  of  advertising,  the  actual  sale 
has  to  be  made  by  printed  matter,  and  to  get  this 
printed  matter  properly  used  is  a  great  part  of 
the  merchandising  problem.  Retailers  are  jealous 
of  the  advertiser  getting  into  contact  with  their 
customers.  They  will  not  very  often,  supply  you 
with  a  list  of  names  and  addresses  that  you  can 
circularise;  but  they  will  address  your  pamphlets 
and  circulars  to  customers  if  you  send  these  all  ready 
to  post  or  deliver.  What  they  like  best,  however, 
is  for  you  to  send  them  new  names.  You  can  do 
this  by  offering  a  pamphlet  or  catalogue  in  your 
newspaper  advertisements  :  you  constantly  see  this 
being  done.  When  you  obtained  the  replies,  you 
would  mention  the  local  retailer's  name,  and  send 
him  the  letters,  urging  him  to  follow  the  writers 
up.  Retailers'  assistance  is  secured  by  all  sorts  of 
co-operation  like  this  on  the  part  of  the  advertiser. 
You  must  do  all  you  can  to  enable  the  retailer  to 
get  an  order  :  and  then  he  will  send  his  orders  to 
you. 

The  other  kind  of  introductory  advertising  is 
where  you  have  to  sell  a  new  product  in  competition 
with  something  else  of  exactly  the  same  kind,  which 
is  giving  satisfaction  to  the  public.  •  This  is  a  much 
more  difficult  operation.  The  function  of  Advertising 
here  is  ostensibly  to  change  the  consumer's  source 
of  supply.  In  practice,  as  I  mentioned  in  the  first 
Lecture,  the  new-comer  does  not  carve  all  the  business 


96  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

out  of  the  flanks  of  his  competitors.  But  he  has 
to  overcome,  at  first,  the  momentum  that  is  behind 
the  sale  of  the  established  product — the  old  favourite. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  is  not  at  the  expense  of  the 
early  explanatory,  or  (as  it  is  called)  the  educational 
advertising  required  for  a  complete  novelty.  This 
is  not  an  unmixed  blessing,  though.  The  public 
will  read  about  a  new  invention  readily  enough. 
Much  more  vigorous  treatment  is  needed  when 
advertising  the  new  brand  of  a  staple  product.  The 
advertisements  require  to  be  bold,  and  to  be 
attractive,  before  they  will  be  sufficiently  studied 
to  wean  the  consumer  from  his  old  supplier. 

This  is  where  the  benefit  of  well-considered  policy 
behind  the  advertising  is  felt.  Advertisements  will 
always  obtain  business  at  less  expense  if  some  newly 
invented  selling-scheme  is  introduced.  An  ingenious 
merchandising-planwas  used  to  introduce  a  new  brand, 
in  competition  with  well-established  trade,  a  few  years 
ago.  The  plan  that  I  mean  was  the  one  used  for 
Farrow's  mustard.  It  was  very  ingenious  and  well 
worked.  If  it  had  been  more  liberally  followed  up 
it  would  have  had  more  visible  permanent  effect. 
Farrow's  mustard,  as  it  happens,  was  not  a  new 
product,  but  an  old-established  article  which  woke 
up  with  a  start.  However,  the  introduction-problem 
was  exactly  like  that  of  a  new  brand.  The  pro- 
prietors had  to  attack  the  well-entrenched  Colman 
position.     This  is  how  they  did  it. 

Farrow's,  or  their  advisers,  appreciated  the  fact 
that  getting  inside  the  guard  of  a  well-established 
demand  like  the  demand  for  Colman's  mustard,  was 
no  sleeping-partner's  job.  Even  if  heavy  advertising 
would  sell  a  certain  number  of  packages,  it  would 


ADVERTISING— ITS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY      97 

have  to  keep  on  bekig  heavy  for  a  long  time,  if  con- 
sumers were  not  to  slip  back  to  the  old  article.  For 
a  very  long  while — unless  they  could  think  of  some- 
thing very  sensational — it  would  take  a  lot  more 
advertising  to  sell  a  tin  of  Farrow's  mustard  than 
it  was  costing  Colman  to  sell  each  tin  of  Colman's 
mustard,  and  Colman  could  be  relied  upon  to  give 
them  plenty  of  competition  in  the  shape  of  heavier 
advertising  as  soon  as  the  invasion  made  itself  felt. 
Persistent  newspaper-advertising,  posters,  show- 
cards,  and  iron  plates,  had  made  the  name  Colman 
almost  synonymous  with  the  name  mustard. 
Farrow's  mustard  was  hardly  known  at  all. 

Now  Farrow's  advertising-man  realised  this,  and 
his  problem,  as  he  saw  it,  was  not  to  sell  the  house- 
wife a  packet  of  mustard,  but  a  year's  or  six  months' 
supply  of  mustard.  He  went  out  after  a  permanent 
effect.  He  believed  that  if  people  got  accustomed 
to  this  mustard  they  would  prefer  it.  At  least,  I 
l^ope  he  believed  this  ;  for  such  belief  is  the  only 
honest  motive  for  Advertising.  So  what  did  he  do? 
He  bought  a  large  number  of  nice  pocket-handker- 
chiefs. And  he  offered  a  pocket-handkerchief  with 
each  packet  of  mustard  bought  within  a  limited  time 
— I  think  it  was  a  week. 

Now  one  pocket-handkerchief  is  of  very  little 
use  to  anyone — in  this  climate.  The  advertising- 
man  calculated  that,  with  a  little  suggestive  help 
from  himself,  people  would  buy,  not  one  packet  of 
Farrow's  mustard,  but  a  dozen — so  as  to  get  a  dozen 
handkerchiefs.  This  quantity  of  mustard  would  take 
a  long  while  to  use,  and  would  give  the  people  time 
to  forget  Mr.  Colman,  which  is  of  course  what 
Farrow's  wanted  them  to  do. 


98  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

The  offer  was  advertised  by  means  of  a  page 
advertisement  in  the  Daily  Mail  and  other  papers, 
and  the  advertisements  contained  a  list  of  the  grocers 
who  had  Farrow's  mustard  for  sale.  In  order  to 
have  his  name  in  the  list  the  grocer  had  to  buy  a 
stock  of  the  mustard,  and  with  the  mustard  came 
the  handkerchiefs.  This  plan  of  advertising  retailers' 
names  is  often  used  with  great  effect,  to  secure  trade 
representation.  Reproductions  of  the  advertise- 
ment were  given  to  grocers  to  paste  on  their  window 
at  the  appointed  date,  and  believe  me,  the  scheme 
sold  the  goods.  First  it  sold  them  to  the  grocers 
and  then  the  advertisement  sold  them  for  the  grocers, 
which  you  will  see  is  what  has  to  happen  with  all 
advertising  of  goods  sold  through  retailers.  The  fact 
that  this  scheme  was  not  followed  up  with  con- 
tinuous advertising  on  a  sufficient  scale  was  dis- 
appointing to  students  of  Advertising  who  would 
have  liked  to  see  whether  it  made  any  considerable 
impression  upon  the  virtual  monopoly  of  J.  &  J. 
Colman. 

Retailers  like  to  have  their  name  in  an  advertise- 
ment, even  if  it  is  in  very  small  type.  You  can 
often  plant  quite  a  large  quantity  of  merchandise 
by  means  of  one  bold  advertisement — the  top  part 
advertising  the  goods,  the  rest  filled  with  the  name 
of  shopkeepers  who  have  put  the  goods  into  stock. 
After  preparing  the  way  by  some  very  thorough 
and  very  efficient  merchandising  work  with  the 
wholesale  and  retail  trade,  the  Auto-Strop  Company 
was  able  to  insert  in  a  single  Daily  Mail  advertise- 
ment the  names  of  1800  shopkeepers,  each  of  whom 
had  bought  a  dozen  guinea  razors  in  order  to  have 
his  name  included.     Of  course,  this  plan  only  intro- 


ADVERTISING— ITS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY      99 

*\ 
duces  the  article  :    the  first  advertisement  must  be 

followed  up  by  a  systematic  campaign.     Spasmodic 

advertising  is  never  a  success.     Perseverance,   and 

the  courage  to  persevere,  are  necessary  to  success. 

It  is  systematic  work  that  wins. 

Another  example  of  a  scheme  of  advertising 
policy  to  attack  an  old  market  was  the  plan  adopted 
for  opening  7he  Times  Book  Club,  with  which  it  is 
betraying  no  secrets,  at  this  time  of  day,  to  say  that 
I  had  a  little — not  much — to  do. 

I  am  going  to  tell  you  how  The  Times  Book 
Club  was  opened.  There  were  two  objects  behind 
this  scheme.  One  was  to  start  a  new  Circulating 
Library.  The  other  was  to  increase  the  sale  of  The 
Times.  I  was  at  that  period  Advertising  Manager 
of  The  Times,  The  Times  badly  wanted  more  circu- 
lation. The  Times  opened  The  Times  Book  Club. 
Incidentally,  I  think  it  was  through  me  that  this 
title  was  adopted.  The  opinion  of  several  people 
was  asked,  whether  it  should  be  called  The  Times 
Circulating  Library,  or  The  Times  Subscription 
Library.  It  was  thought  that  *  Subscription  Library  ' 
sounded  more  dignified  ;  but  I  objected  to  it,  because 
of  the  nature  of  the  scheme  itself,  and  I  think  it  was 
I  who  suggested  '  Book  Club '  :  at  all  events,  if  I 
did  not  suggest  this  title,  I  backed  it,  and  it  was 
adopted — partly  because  it  was  shorter  than  any 
of  the  others,  and  to  be  short  is  always  a  good  thing 
in  a  title,  because  you  can  get  it  into  bigger  type 
without  exceeding  one  line. 

The  plan  adopted  with  the  object  of  doubling 
the  circulation  of  The  Times,  and  at  the  same  time 
establishing  The  Times  Book  Club,  was  this — that 
readers  could  have  the  privilege  of  borrowing  books 


loo  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

from  the  Book  Club,  three  volumes  at  a  time,  without 
paying  any  more  for  the  paper,  provided  that  they 
paid  for  a  year's  issues  of  The  Times  in  advance. 
Nothing  but  that.  The  cost  of  a  year's  copies  of 
The  Times,  then  published  at  3J.,  would  be  about 
£3  i8i". — for  312  or  313  week-days  at  3  J.  a  day. 
The  Book  Club  gave — ^and  still  gives — such  a  really 
splendid  service  that  it  was  well  worth  £3  i8j-.  by 
itself.  But  you  did  not  have  to  pay  anything  extra  : 
for  the  £3  i8i-.  you  got  both,  or,  as  one  of  the  advertise- 
ments said,  if  you  subscribed  to  The  Times,  you  got 
the  service  of  the  Book  Club  for  nothing :  if  you 
subscribed  to  the  Book  Club,  you  got  The  Times 
for  nothing. 

You  may  ask  where  the  profit  was  to  come  from. 
Well,  that  was  rather  a  subtle  piece  of  policy.  Mr. 
Hooper,  who  founded  the  Book  Club,  believed — 
and  it  turned  out  that  he  was  right  in  believing — 
that  the  readers  of  The  Times  would  buy  a  great 
many  books,  and  that  there  would  be  profit  enough 
on  their  purchases  to  repay  the  expense  of  the  whole 
organisation.  He  had  a  very  ingenious  policy  to 
promote  the  sale  of  books  ;  but  there  is  not  time 
to  describe  it  now.  The  part  of  the  scheme  which 
was  designed  to  increase  the  sale  of  The  Times  is 
complicated  enough. 

For  it  was  not  merely  a  question  of  getting  people 
to  pay  £3  I  Si",  in  one  sum  instead  of  paying  3^.  a 
day.  There  was  the  question  of  delivery.  They 
did  not  all  want  The  Times  posted  to  them.  They 
did  not  want  what  is  ordinarily  called  a  '  subscription  ' 
to  The  Times — and  now  you  will  understand  my 
objection  to  the  name  *  Subscription  Library.'  They 
wanted  to  buy  The  Times  for  themselves  each  day. 


ADVERTISING— ITS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY    loi 
> 

wherever  they  happened  to  be.     To  provide  for  these 

people,  books  of  tickets,  very  much  like  a  book  of 

postage  stamps,  were  prepared — one  ticket  for  every 

day  of  the  year,  each  ticket  good  for  a  copy  of  T^he 

Times  at  any  newsagent's  or  bookstall. 

This  is  the  way  that  The  Times  Book  Club  was 
opened.  It  is  still  a  prosperous  and  very  excellent 
library — much  the  best  in  London,  in  my  opinion — 
though  The  Times  subscription  plan  has  been  dropped, 
and  you  pay  for  The  Times  if  you  want  it  and 
the  Book  Club  service  if  you  want  that,  with  no 
rebate  either  way.  Each  is  well  worth  the  money  by 
itself. 

In  each  of  these  two  examples,  the  function  of 
the  advertisements  was  to  change  the  consumer's 
source  of  supply — to  turn  the  housewife  from  Colman's 
mustard  to  Farrow's,  to  take  subscribers  away  from 
Mudie's  and  Smith's  libraries  and  bring  them  to 
The  Times  Book  Club.  But  in  both  cases,  as  in  all 
cases,  one  important  part  of  the  total  effect  was  the 
creation  of  new,  and  usually  une^^pect^d,,  custor^Ars. 
More  mustard  was  eaten  in  consGqtidnc6°of  Faifow's 
campaign  :  more  books  wer^^  r^ad: — ^J^d'^^old^.t^Ojo-rV- 
because  of  The  Times  campaign.  ^ '     ^'  >  ^ .  .  .« ^, 

I  have  said  nearly  as  much  as  time  and  your 
patience  will  permit  of  the  difference  between  selling 
a  new  invention  and  selling  a  new  brand.  One 
requires  an  educational  campaign.  The  other  does 
not  need  this.  Either  of  the  two  is  greatly  helped 
by  a  new  merchandising  or  selling  scheme,  to  over- 
come the  objection  of  shopkeepers  to  putting  a  new 
article  into  stock  in  the  one  case,  and  to  overcome 
the  addiction  of  customers  to  the  old  brand  in  the 
other.     Both  need  the  perseverance  and  courage  to 


102  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

stay  by  the  investment  until  the  business  has  time  to 
turn  the  corner. 

The  fallacy  that,  when  a  business  has  been  built  up 
by  large  advertising,  it  can  afterwards  '  run  alone,' 
has  been  so  often  exposed  that  only  the  least  ex- 
perienced advertisers  are  now  subject  to  it.  This 
error  is  based  on  the  fact  that  to  establish  a  new 
demand  requires  more  advertising  than  to  maintain 
that  demand.  It  is  cheaper  to  keep  up  a  demand 
than  to  create  one.  But  a  heavy  fall  in  sales  (and 
consequently  in  profits)  is  found  to  result  from  with- 
drawal of  advertisements,  even  for  a  short  time. 
Any  practical  advertiser  who  has  tried  it  will  agree 
that  after  a  period  of  complete  withdrawal,  the  ex- 
pense of  restoring  a  demand  is  much  larger  than  that 
which  would  have  been  necessary  to  maintain  it  if  the 
advertisements  had  been  kept  up.  Even  when  an 
article  is  seasonal  it  needs  some  inter-season  publicity. 
An  advertiser  of  night-lights,  of  which  the  sale  falls 
off  from  May  to  August,  made  the  experiment  of  with- 
drawing the  whole  of'his  night-light  advertising  during 
one -Slimmer;  This  proved  so  disastrous  that  it  was 
never -repeated.  'The  proprietor  told  me  that  it  cost 
far  more  than  he  had  saved,  to  pull  the  order  book 
up  to  standard  figures. 

The  actual  expenditure  used  to  maintain  the 
demand  for  an  advertised  product  is  often  increased 
in  the  face  of  new  competition  such  as  I  have  been 
describing.  The  new-comer  whom  we  have  just 
been  trying  to  help  must  not  expect  everything 
his  own  way  :  and  our  business  here  to-night  is  to  be 
Jack  o'  both  sides.  No  doubt  if  a  new  competition 
turns  up,  increased  advertising  will  be  an  important 
safeguard  to  the   old  brand  ;    but  very  often   the 


ADVERTISING^TS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY     103 

amount  of  it  used  is  more  than  the  position  really 
requires.  New  advertising  may  cut  into  an  old 
demand  for  a  time  ;  but  if  the  old  demand  is  properly 
supported,  the  commonest  result  of  the  new  advertis- 
ing is  to  enlarge  the  market  by  creating  new  customers. 
The  increased  advertising  of  the  established  brand 
almost  always  exceeds  what  is  necessary  for  self- 
protection.  The  old  product  gets  an  increased  sale 
in  spite  of  new  competition.  This  has  frequently 
happened  within  my  own  experience. 

The  second  function  of  Advertising  is  to  main- 
tain or  increase  the  demand  for  an  established  pro- 
duct already  advertised.  Every  article  that  has 
been  long  advertised  is  in  a  different  class  from  one 
that  is  being  newly  introduced,  and  those  among 
you  who  are  engaged  or  intend  to  be  engaged  in 
practical  Advertising  are  more  likely  to  meet 
with  the  task  of  continuing  such  Advertising  than 
any  other.  You  will  then  be  faced  by  an  estab- 
lished advertising  policy.  Unless  there  is  something 
radically  wrong  with  the  business,  the  chances  are 
that  this  policy  is  the  right  answer  to  its  problems. 
It  will  seldom  be  necessary  to  introduce  radical 
changes,  though  this  is  sometimes  done.  A  few 
years  ago,  the  advertising  of  Kodak  Limited  showed 
material  development,  under  the  influence  of  an 
advertising-man  of  genius.  First,  you  may  remember, 
came  the  famous  Kodak  girl,  in  her  flying  skirts  and 
her  stripes,  which  actually  influenced  fashion  at  the 
time  :  women  were  everywhere  seen  in  striped 
frocks.  Now  this  was  only  a  change  in  style  of  copy. 
But  the  Kodak  girl  in  the  newspaper-advertise- 
ments, and  later  in  a  very  fine  poster,  and  all  the 
other   developments    of    the   copy,   were    only   the 


104  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

symptom  of  something  much  more  important,  a 
striking  development  of  policy.  Any  competent 
critic  of  Advertising  could  see  that  Kodak  Limited 
were  more  desirous  of  selling  roll-films  than  they  were 
of  selling  cameras.  More  and  more,  they  began  to 
advertise  photography  rather  than  to  advertise 
merely  Kodaks.  The  '  Happy  Days  '  competition — 
a  prize  for  the  best  collection  of  holiday  pictures — 
had  an  enormous  effect  in  increasing  the  number  of 
enthusiastic  amateur  photographers.  Kodak  Limited 
were  engaged  in  getting  Kodak  cameras  used,  rather 
than  sold,  though  of  course  they  did  sell  enormous 
numbers.  1  could  tell  you  why  this  policy  was 
adopted  ;  but  you  can  probably  divine  the  reason 
for  yourselves.  It  was  an  example  of  the  policy 
of  increasing  the  consumption  of  an  advertised  pro- 
duct, by  finding  new  uses  for  it.  A  similar  policy 
has  often  been  visible  in  the  Colman's  mustard 
advertising.  Messrs.  Colman  could  not  expect  to 
make  many  new  buyers  of  mustard,  of  which  they 
control  the  principal  brands.  But  they  could  make 
people  use  more  mustard.  Under  the  direction  of 
my  friend  the  late  S.  H.  Benson,  the  finest  and  most 
upright  man  whom  the  advertising  business  has 
produced,  there  was  the  plan  of  combating  the  pre- 
judice against  eating  mustard  with  mutton.  Later, 
there  was  the  campaign  for  the  clean  mustard  cruet — 
nice  clean  mustard  every  day,  with  all  the  bite  in  it, 
instead  of  mustard  growing  darker  and  less  pungent, 
and  less  attractive.  You  know  the  old  story  that 
Mr.  Colman — Sir  Jeremiah  Colman  as  he  became — 
said,  '  No,  I'm  not  the  man  who  made  a  fortune  out 
of  the  mustard  that  you  eat.  I  am  the  man  who  made 
a  fortune  out  of  the  mustard  that  you  leave  on  your 


ADVERTISING— ITS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY       105 

plate.'  I  dare  say  that  is  a  fable.  But  in  the  clean-pot 
campaign  Mr.  Benson's  object  was  to  increase  the 
Colman  fortune  by  means  of  the  mustard  washed  out 
of  the  cruet.  Later  still  came  the  mustard-in-your- 
bath  campaign.  If  you  have  an  old-established  article 
to  advertise,  therefore,  do  not  be  content  with 
seeking  new  buyers.     Seek  new  uses  for  the  article. 

This  is  one  way  in  which  the  mere  making  of 
attractive  advertisements  can  be  supplemented  by 
devices  of  policy  in  maintaining  the  sale  of  an  estab- 
lished product.  The  third  function — to  protect  an 
established  product  against  competition — is  a  kindred 
problem.  Having  an  established  business  yielding 
an  established  income,  the  most  obvious  way  to  do 
battle  with  new  competition  is  to  increase  the  adver- 
tising appropriation — use  more  newspapers,  larger 
posters,  more  liberal  space  in  the  newspapers.  But 
it  is  not  enough  to  spend  a  little  extra  money.  Ideas 
are  more  important  than  expenditure.  I  can  give 
you  no  recipe  for  the  invention  of  new  ideas.  All 
that  has  been  possible  is  to  give  you  a  few  specimens 
of  ideas  which  have  been  invented  by  other  people,  to 
show  you  how  they  thought  and  suggest  to  you  that 
in  order  to  achieve  the  same  success  you  must  do 
some  thinking  on  your  own  account.  Originality, 
curbed  by  the  judgment  which  is  only  gained  by 
experience,  is  the  mainspring  of  Advertising,  because 
it  is  the  essence  of  the  most  important  factor  of 
Advertising — namely.  Policy. 

I  should  like  to  devote  some  time  to-night  to  two 
other  subjects — retail  advertising  and  the  use  of 
technical  and  trade  journals,  but  there  is  not  time 
to  deal  with  these  in  any  exact  manner,  and  to  be 
incomplete    would    involve    inexactness.     So,    with 


io6  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

some  reluctance,  I  must  let  them  go,  hoping  that  in 
a  future  lecture  I  may  have  an  opportunity  to 
discuss  them. 
W  But  before  we  finish  with  the  function  of  Advertis- 
ing there  is  one  important  subject  for  which  I  have 
reserved  the  remainder  of  our  time,  and  that  is,  the 
cost  of  advertising.  We  have  seen  who  pays  for 
advertisements.  They  are  paid  by  the  consumer 
of  the  goods  or  services  advertised.  Advertising, 
however,  so  greatly  economises  expenses  of  selling, 
that  Commercial  Advertising  at  all  events,  in  the 
limited  and  conventional  sense  which  I  give  to  this 
term,  costs  the  consumer  nothing  and  less  than 
nothing.  He  would  pay  more  for  goods  of  the  same 
standard  if  they  were  not  advertised.  But  what 
is  the  price  of  advertising  ?  Can  we  approach 
arithmetical  figures  ?  Is  Advertising,  in  eifect,  an 
exact  science  ?  These  are  questions  that  are  always 
being  asked  and  always  being  very  imperfectly  and 
unsatisfactorily  answered. 

I  am  not  sure  of  satisfying  you  with  my  own 
reply,  if  I  give  it  the  form  of  counter-questions. 
Is  Banking  an  exact  science  ?  Is  Insurance  ?  Is 
trading  without  advertisement  an  exact  science  ? 
You  will  find  many  excuses  in  the  archives  of  Carey 
Street  for  men's  bankruptcies.  I  do  not  remember 
any  debtor  who  has  attributed  his  insolvency  to 
advertising — unless  it  was  his  competitors'  adver- 
tising. Opening  a  branch  of  a  bank  in  a  new  town 
is  at  least  as  much  of  a  gamble  as  an  advertisement 
campaign  under  direction  as  experienced  as  that  of 
the  manager  whom  a  bank  would  employ  to  open 
a  new  branch.  And  Insurance  ?  Well,  fires,  and 
shipwrecks,  and  human  life  are  not  precisely  the  most 


ADVERTISING— ITS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY    107 

exact  and  calculable  things  in  the  world.  It  will 
be  replied  that  Insurance  is  able  to  rely  on  averages. 
Exactly  the  same  thing  is  true  of  Advertising. 
Insurance  relies  on  the  average  of  fires,  wrecks,  and 
deaths.  Advertising  relies  on  the  average  psychology 
of  the  human  mind.  It  is  not  so  easy  to  put  into 
statistics — granted.  But  there  is  an  approach  to 
statistical  treatment.  Professor  Dill  Scott,  Director 
of  the  Psychological  Laboratory  in  the  North-Western 
University,  United  States,^  has  tested  a  number  of 
things.  He  has  exhibited  a  succession  of  advertise- 
ments to  a  number  of  people  and  compared  their 
memories  and  impressions  ;  he  has  carefully  measured 
the  psychological  effect  of  colour,  size,  and  illustration 
in  holding  the  eye  ;  and  he  has  made  a  number  of 
other  experiments.  Some  years  ago  I  conducted 
some  rather  similar  investigations  for  a  technical 
journal  in  London.  I  also  conducted  an  experiment, 
which  is  pretty  well  known,  on  the  visibility  of  colour 
combinations  at  distance.  There  is  an  elaborate 
account  and  an  apparatus  of  statistics  relating  to 
this  in  my  friend  Mr.  Cyril  Sheldon's  manual  '  Bill- 
posting',  Such  things  as  these,  and  the  fact  that 
advertisers  are  willing  to  pay  for  them,  make  the 
growing  demand  for  exact  calculation  of  effect  in 
advertising  more  hopeful  of  satisfaction  than  many 
people  suppose  it  to  be. 

It  is  not  yet  possible  to  eliminate  the  disturbing 
and  varying  elements  of  competition,  financial 
conditions  of  the  market,  relative  consumption  and 
the  like,  sufficiently  to  approach  to  an  exact  estimate 
of  what  it  should  cost  to   advertise  any  particular 

^  Professor  Dill  Scott's  work,  The  Theory  and  Practice  of  Advertisings 
is  published  in  the  EngUsh  edition  by  Sir  Isaac  Pitman  &  Sons. 


io8  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

class  of  commodities.  These  things  could  be 
estimated  in  a  rough  way  if  a  large  number  of  busi- 
nesses could  be  investigated ;  but  statistics  are 
never  any  good  unless  they  are  copious.  I  believe, 
after  having  for  many  years  been  permitted  to  see 
the  statistics  of  numerous  and  varied  businesses,  that 
there  is  a  rough  relation  between  two  figures.  These 
figures  are  the  proportion  of  selling-price  to  cost- 
price,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  ratio  of  advertising 
expense  to  gross  sales  on  the  other.  To  put  it 
another  way,  I  believe  we  shall  some  day  be  able 
to  plot  some  sort  of  curve  showing  that  the  closer 
the  selling-price  is  to  the  cost,  the  less  advertis- 
ing you  require.  The  obstacle  to  exactness  is  the 
reticence  of  advertisers.  If  a  sufficient  number  of 
examples  could  be  obtained,  we  should  be  able  to 
deduce  a  law — perhaps. 

In  conducting  any  kind  of  advertising,  it  is 
important  to  watch  how  the  cost  of  it,  and  other 
expenses,  vary  in  proportion  to  sales.  For  this  will 
enable  you  to  criticise  your  methods.  Charts  and 
graphs  of  various  kinds  are  useful  not  only  to  inform 
the  advertising  manager,  but  also  to  assist  him  in 
carrying  conviction  of  his  views  to  his  superiors. 
By  comparing  the  variation  of  sales  over  a  period 
with  the  proportionate  use  of  different  advertising 
methods  during  the  same  period,  it  is  possible  to 
obtain  an  idea  which  method,  or  even  which  line  of 
argument,  gives  the  best  results. ^ 

1  It  was  not  possible,  while  lecturing,  to  pursue  this  subject  to  its 
limits.  In  an  article  on  '  Leakages  in  Advertising,'  contributed  to 
The  Times  some  fifteen  years  ago,  and  since  reprinted  by  The  Times, 
I  used  the  following  examples  : 

•  Where  a  system  of  Advertising  is  being  conducted  with  results, 
on  the  whole,  profitable,  leakages  are  sometimes  very  difficult  to  trace, 
owing  to  the  great  complexity  of  the  subject.     Where  advertisements 


ADVERTISING— ITS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY     109 

I  give  some  actual  statistics  to  illustrate  this 
mode  of  testing  the  results  in  detail  of  mixed  adver- 
tising, because  the  test  is  very  important.  I  have 
also  had  a  chart  made,  which  represents  the  figures  in 
a  graphic  manner,  and  illustrates  this  method  of 
finding  out  what  kind  of  advertisements  pay  best 
in  a  particular  case.  The  way  in  which  statistics 
are  used  is  this.  You  analyse  the  total  expenditure 
into  its  component  parts,  which  in  this  example 
are   shown    at   the    top.      Then    you    observe    the 

are  appearing,  perhaps  in  several  forms,  in  a  list  of  some  hundreds  of 
newspapers,  supplemented  (very  likely)  by  wall-posters  and  pamphlets 
variously  distributed,  it  often  happens  that  a  general  return  is  realised, 
which  shows  an  adequate  profit  on  the  whole  system,  though  a  trained 
observer  would  suspect  that  not  all  the  moneys  expended  were  con- 
tributing profitably  to  the  result.  Evidently  the  detection  of  such  a 
leakage  must  be  of  very  great  advantage  to  the  advertiser,  since  an 
economy  in  any  one  department  might  release  funds  which  could 
either  be  written  to  profit-and-loss  account,  or  utilised  in  extending 
the  operations  known  to  be  remunerative.  There  are  a  number  of 
ways  in  which  the  results  from  a  system  of  advertising  can  be  in- 
terrogated in  order  to  yield  information  of  this  kind.  The  most 
obvious,  and  also  the  most  hazardous,  method  is  to  withdraw  in  turns 
portions  of  the  advertising,  and  compute  the  value  of  them  from  the 
fluctuation  of  sale.  This  is  the  method  which  commends  itself  to  the 
unskilled  advertiser,  always  prone  to  be  elated  by  a  diminution  in 
his  outgoings  which  does  not  immediately  react  upon  sales.  But  it 
has  this  objection,  that  the  statistics  thus  obtained  require  time — and 
perhaps  more  time  than  the  advertiser  supposes — for  their  realisation  ; 
while  there  is  always  a  chance  of  their  being  vitiated  by  extraneous 
and  unsuspected  causes.  For  instance,  supposing  that  a  group  of 
Lancashire  newspapers  was  suspected  of  not  producing  adequate 
results  and  that  the  advertising  were  withdrawn  from  them  for  three 
months,  during  which  a  cotton-famine  occurred,  or  large  and  general 
strikes  took  place  :  the  advertiser  would  never  be  able  to  say  how 
much  of  his  lost  sale  was  the  result  of  the  withdrawal  of  advertising 
and  how  much  of  it  was  the  result  of  the  other  circumstance.  And 
the  accidental  perturbation  might,  in  any  given  case,  be  much  less 
recognisable  than  either  of  those  mentioned.  Even  where  no  ex- 
traneous disturbance  was  suspected,  the  advertiser  would  have  to  wait 
for  some  time  before  he  could  judge  with  safety  that  a  withdrawal  of 
any  portion  of  his  advertising  had  not  depleted  his  sales  by  a  greater 
sum  than  he  had  saved  by  it.  In  the  meantime  he  would  have  had 
to  put  up  with  the  loss,  and  most  likely  it  would  cost  him  a  great  deal 
of  extra  money  to  pull  his  sale  up  again  to  the  former  level ;  while, 
in  proportion  to  the  truth  of  the  last  consideration,  the  statistics  would 
be  vitiated  by  the  cumulative  effect  of  previous  advertising  producing 
longer  continuance  of  sales  than  he  had  aUowed  for,* — The  Times  on 
Advertising  :    Printing  House  Square,  191 1. 


no 


COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 


variations  in  sales,  and  try  to  see  what  difference — 
what  rise  or  fall  of  sale — corresponds  with  the 
difference  in  the  distribution  of  advertising  expense. 
Further,   you  notice  the  proportion   of  advertising 


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Chart  I. — Comparing 
advertisement  expense 
with  units  of  sale. 


Chart  II, — Showing  ratio 
of  advertising  to  sales. 


expense  to  sale — how  much  advertising  is  required 
to  sell  a  given  quantity  of  merchandise. 

It  is  not  always  good  policy  to  push  the  sale 
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find  that  there  is  a  sticking-point,  where  the  natural 
market  is  saturated.  To  rise  above  this  may  cost  you 
so  much  that  it  is  not  worth  while.  In  the  business 
from  which   I   made  this  chart,   the  sticking-point 


ADVERTISING— ITS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY     in 


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112  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

seems  to  have  been  somewhere  about  3^11,000.  By- 
adjusting  the  different  modes  of  advertising — spending 
more  on  newspaper  advertising,  and  less  on  pamphlets 
— these  manufacturers  of  a  food  product  were  able 
to  get  the  expense  of  selling  about  ^11,000  worth 
pretty  constant  at  about  lyi  per  cent.  When  it 
was  ^12,000  the  ratio  of  advertising  expense  to  sales 
ran  up  about  23  per  cent. 

But  the  thing  we  were  looking  for,  in  the  investi- 
gation represented  by  this  chart,  was  the  kind  of 
advertising  that  paid  best.  The  figures  showed 
that  press  advertising  and  posters  gave  good  results ; 
distribution  of  printed  matter  from  house  to  house 
did  not  answer  ;  whenever  these  increased,  the  cost 
of  selling  went  up.^ 

1  The  figures  represented  by  the  chart  shown  were  as  follows  : 

Ratio 
of  Ad- 
Advertising.  Sales.  vertis- 
ing  to 
Sales. 

1903  £  £  £  % 

Press  .....  1500 

Posters       .....         300 
Showcards  and  window-dressing  loo 

House-to-house     distribution     of 


printed  matter         .         .         .         600 


1904 

Press          .....  1650 

Posters      .....  300 

Showcards  and  windows      .          .  120 

House-to-house  ....  550 


1905 

Press 1,575 

Posters       .                    ...  400 

Showcards  and  windows      .          .  115 

House-to-house  .         .                   .  650 


1906 

Press          .....  1600 

Posters       .....  400 

Showcards  and  windows      .         .  125 

House-to-house  ....  675 


2500         10,100         24*6 


2620  11,900 


2740  11,800  23'22 


2800         12,100         23-14 


ADVERTISING— ITS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY    113 

I  have  given  you  this  example  because  it  is  often 
said,  and  said  by  people  who  ought  to  know  better, 
that  where  mixed  advertising  is  used  for  an  article 
sold  through  retailers,  it  is  impossible  to  tell  what 
part  of  the  advertising  pays  and  what  does  not. 
It  is  not  impossible,  if  you  will  take  enough 
trouble. 


1907 

Press 

Posters 

Showcards  and  windows 

House-to-house  . 


1908 
Press 
Posters 

Showcards  and  windows 
House-to-house  . 


1909 
Press 
Posters 

Showcards  and  windows 
House-to-house 


1910 
Press 
Posters 

Showcards  and  windows 
House-to-house  . 


Advertising. 

i  i 

1500 

350 
125 
250 


1550 
250 
100 


1800 
90 


1600 
300 


2210 


1900 


1890 


Sales. 


11,900 


11,000 


10,500 


Ratio 
of  Ad- 
vertis- 
ing to 
Sales. 

/o 


18.5 


17-27 


18-00 


11,200 


17-85 


1911 

Press 

Posters 

Showcards  and  windows 

House-to-house 


1500 
400 

"5 

500 


2515  11,800 


21-31 


1912 
Press 
Posters 

Showcards  and  windows 
House-to-house  . 


1590 
500 

95 
300 


2485 


12,500 


19-88 

I 


114 


COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 


Here,  as  another  instance  of  statistical  treatment, 
is  a  set  of  figures  showing  the  cost  of  introducing  a 
new  product : 


Expenditure  and  Sales,   1907  to  191  i 


Sales 
Advertising 

Difference 


1907         1908         1909         1910  1911 

i  i  i  i  i 

14,500  45,000  52,000  60,000  68,000 

15,000  16,000  23,000  24,750  25,300 


500    29,000    29,000    35,250    42,700 


Advertising-cost  per  ;^ioo  of  Sales 
(To  two  places  of  decimals.)         £ 


1907 

.  103-45 

1908 

.  35-55 

1909 

.  44-23 

I9I0 

.  41-25 

I9II 

.  37*20 

Advertising-cost  of  each  Year's  Increase  in  Sales 

Increase  in    1908  (£30,500)  cost  ;f  1,000  or  3*3  per  cent. 

1909  (;£7»ooo)        „  ;£7,ooo  „  100        „ 

1910  (;£8,ooo)        „  ;£i,75o  „  21-9 

191 1  (;£8,ooo)        „  ;^55o      „  7 


At  the  beginning  it  cost,  as  you  see,  £500  more 
to  pay  for  the  advertising  than  the  total  amount  of 
the  sales  resulting  ;  and  if  you  attach  any  credence 
to  my  theoretical  curve  of  the  relation  between  gross 
profit  and  advertising  ratio  you  will  rightly  conclude 
that  the  article  advertised  was  something  showing 
a  liberal  margin.  In  the  best  year,  more  than  37 
per  cent  of  the  sales  was  spent  for  advertisements. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  appears  to  have  been  an  article 


I909. 

i 

16,000 

1910. 
18,000 

1911. 
18,000 

4,000 

2,900 

100 

•  • 

1,000 

3,000 

250 

2,500 

500 
3,000 

300 
3^500 

ADVERTISING— ITS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY    115 

which  gave  satisfaction  to  its  purchasers,  for  they 

evidently  went  on  buying.     The  cost  of  making  new 

sales    fell    rapidly,    after    the    business    was    fairly 

launched. 

The  most  important  fact  disclosed  by  this  set 

of  statistics,  however,  is  the  one  furnished  in  the 

concluding  table,  which   analyses  the  appropriation 

into  its  details  ; 

1907.        1908. 

i  i 

Newspapers      .     10,000     12,000 

Circulars  posted       3,000       2,000 

House  to  House       2,000      2,000 

Samples      .      . 

Billposting 

Totals  .  .  15,000  16,000  23,000  24,750  25,300 
For  convenience 

let  us  put  down 

again  the  sales 

of  each  year.  14,500  45,000  52,000  60,000  68,000 
And     also    the 

increase    each 

year     on     the 

previous    year  .  .        30,500       7,000       8,000      8,000 

Look  at  the  testimonial  that  the  last  two  years 
give  to  billposting,  for  this  particular  product ! 
In  1 910,  ^8000  of  new  sales  might  have  been 
attributed  to  newspaper  advertising,  but  next 
year  billposting  carries  off  the  whole  credit. 
Newspaper  advertising,  probably  at  its  maximum 
efficiency  when  it  reaches  ^f  18,000,  is  not  increased. 
Postal  work  is  cut  down  almost  to  nothing,  and  the 
only  increased  expense  except  posters  is  an  extra 
3^50  for  samples.  But  the  sale  jumps  another  ,^8000  ; 
the  total  cost  of  selling  falls  more  than  4  per  cent 


ii6  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

and  the  cost  of  getting  new  business  falls  nearly  15 
per  cent. 

The  relative  figures  of  advertising  and  sales  in 
any  business  keep  on  varying  as  conditions  change. 
Fresh  ideas  are  introduced  in  fresh  ways,  the  ratio 
goes  up  and  down,  according  to  the  success  or  failure 
of  the  devices  used.  This  proves  what  I  told  you 
about  the  importance  of  being  original.  The  effect 
is  a  curve,  gradually  getting  flatter  if  the  business  is 
succeeding.    You  get  some  such  curve  as  this  : 


This  particular  curve  is  known  to  mathematicians 
as  the  curve  of  pursuit.  It  is  really  supposed  to 
represent  the  line  followed  by  an  animal  which 
chases  a  moving  prey.  A  dog  (D)  sees  a  rabbit  (R). 
The  rabbit  sees  the  dog.  The  dog  starts  after  the 
rabbit.     The  rabbit  runs  towards  its  burrow  (B). 

Now  observe  what  takes  place.  As  the  rabbit  runs 
and  the  dog  runs,  the  dog's  direction  changes.  The 
rabbit  runs  in  a  straight  line — for  safety.  But  the 
dog  does  not  run  in  a  straight  line.  He  keeps  his 
eye  on  the  rabbit,  and  though  he  thinks  he  is  running 
in  a  straight  line  towards  it,  he  is  not.  He  is  running 
in  a  curve.     Let  us  imagine  that  each  of  the  divisions 


ADVERTISING— ITS  FUNCTIONS  AND  POLICY    117 

marked  on  this  diagram  represents  the  distance 
travelled  by  the  two  animals  respectively  in  each 
second.  When  the  rabbit  is  at  R  the  dog  is  at  D  ; 
but  when  the  dog  has  run  a  little  way  he  will  no  longer 
run  in  the  line  DR,  but  in  the  line  which  goes  straight 
from  where  he  now  is  to  where  the  rabbit  now  is, 
and  so  on.  Thus  we  get  a  constantly  changing 
direction.  The  dog  really  runs  in  a  curve  formed  by 
his  own  violent  effort  to  run  in  a  straight  line,  because 
his  sense  of  the  rabbit's  position  changes  at  every 
step.  The  more  he  tries  to  run  straight,  the  more 
exactly  he  runs  in  a  curve,  a  curve  of  which  all  the 
elements  are  found  in  a  circle. 

Even  so,  the  advertising  policy  of  a  business 
varies  from  time  to  time,  the  managers  very  often 
imagining  (like  the  dog)  that  it  is  continuous,  whereas 
it  is  really  curving  into  ever-increased  efficiency. 

I  do  not  pretend  that  this  last  example  bears 
the  same  definite  relation  to  figures  as  the  earlier 
illustrations  of  working  towards  exact  figures  in 
advertising.  But  as  an  illustration  it  has  been  much 
admired,  and  this  has  tempted  me  to  show  it  again 
here. 


LECTURE  III 

Copy-Writing  and  the  Practical  Psychology 
OF  Advertising 

Practical  psychology  in  Advertising — Advertisement-writing — Nine- 
teenth-century Advertising  :  the  use  of  repetition — Twentieth- 
century  Advertising  :  the  appeal  of  reason — Improved  literary 
form  of  modern  advertisements — The  appeal  to  emotion — '  Reason- 
why  '  copy — The  three  functions  of  an  advertisement :  to  attract, 
to  convince,  and  to  persuade — Attraction-value  of  pictures — • 
Superior  attraction-value  of  headlines — Suggestion  by  associa- 
tion of  ideas — Uses  of  display-type — Headhnes  and  headhne- 
writing — Argument  in  Advertising — Use  of  pictures  and  diagrams 
— Putting  the  '  punch  '  into  Advertising — The  art  of  advertise- 
ment-writing— A  highly  specialised  calling — English  the  best 
language  for  Advertising — The  importance  of  studying  the  goods 
advertised — What  makes  a  strong  and  what  a  weak  advertise- 
ment— Importance  of  definite  statements — Use  and  abuse  of 
brevity — Change  of  copy — Epigram  run  mad — Slogans — Quahfi- 
cations  of  the  advertisement-writer — Cleverness  no  substitute 
for  honesty — Two  ways  of  writing  advertisements — Psychological 
effects  of  type-forms. 

IN  the  last  Lecture,  I  tried  to  give  you  a  general 
survey  of  the  functions  of  Advertising,  at  the 
same  time  discussing,  with  examples,  the 
monetary  cost  of  exercising  those  functions  for 
profit.  But  mere  expenditure  of  money  is  only  the 
mechanical  part  of  Advertising.  We  ascend  this 
evening  to  higher  considerations.  I  am  going  to 
talk  about  what  people  rather  like  to  call  the  psycho- 
logy of  Advertising,  and  then  about  the  writing  and 
construction  of  advertisements  themselves.  This 
is  the  work — advertisement-writing — which  people 
who  think  of  going  in  for  Advertising  as  a  career 
almost  always  select.  Incidentally,  no  advertising 
man  ever  calls  it  that,  though  I  may  do  so,  to  avoid 
sounding  too  technical.  He  calls  it  '  copy-writing.' 
And  he  does  not  think,  as  those  outside  the  business 

ii8 


PRACTICAL  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ADVERTISING       119 

invariably  think,  that  copy-writing  is  the  whole,  or 
the  most  important  part,  of  the  business.  Only 
quite  inexperienced  persons — and  those  who  do  it — 
think  that.  Neither  can  copy-writing  be  done  by 
the  light  of  nature.  It  requires  much  training  and 
much  perseverance.  Those  who  have  not  tried  it 
never  believe  this.  It  has  been  said  that  every  man 
thinks  himself  able  to  poke  a  fire,  manage  a  wife, 
and  edit  a  newspaper.  The  cynic  who  uttered  this 
apophthegm  would  have  added  '  write  an  advertise- 
ment '  if  he  had  lived  in  our  day,  and  been  in  the 
Advertising  business,  because  people  are  always  telling 
him  so. 

The  '  brilliant  ideas '  that  are  always  being 
offered  to  any  advertising  manager  are,  almost  without 
exception,  useless.  They  do  not,  and  cannot,  embody 
the  policy  of  the  business,  because  the  writer  cannot 
know  this  policy.  Only  an  advertising  man  would 
be  likely  to  divine  it  from  the  current  advertisements 
themselves. 

I  said  last  week,  as  you  will  perhaps  remember, 
that  the  policy  behind  any  advertisement  was  more 
important  than  the  advertisement  itself.  Policy  is 
quite  as  much  a  problem  of  psychology  as  copy- 
writing.  This  science  of  psychology  is  much  oftener 
talked  of  than  understood  in  any  scientific  way.  I  do 
not  want  to  claim  for  the  remarks  which  are  to  be  sub- 
mitted this  evening  any  such  title  as  that  of  a  lecture 
on  this  great  subject — especially  in  this  place. 

The  science  which  purports  to  describe  the 
operations  of  the  human  mind  has  been  called  by  one 
eminent  professor  of  it  the  science  of  behaviour. 
I  do  not  know  that  this  is  much  more  illuminating 
than  to  describe  it  as  the  science  of  how  people  think, 


120  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

but  it  is  certain  that  the  only  way  to  know  how  they 
think  is  to  observe  how  they  behave.  In  any  event, 
to  know  the  motives  and  causes  of  people's  behaviour 
is  at  the  bottom  of  the  advertisement-writer's  success, 
whether  he  is  conscious  that  there  is  a  science  of 
them  or  not.  He  may  never  have  read  a  manual  of 
psychology.  He  may  hardly  be  aware  that  such  a 
science  exists.  But  through  experience  in  contact 
with  other  men,  as  salesman  perhaps,  or  merely  as 
one  who  enjoys  observantly  the  society  of  his  kind, 
the  successful  writer  of  advertisements  is  a  man 
who  knows  how  people  think.  He  appeals  to  their 
reason,  using  the  sort  of  arguments  which  he  finds 
to  carry  conviction.  He  uses  their  emotions,  em- 
ploying whatever  line  of  appeal  his  experience  has 
found  the  most  cogent.  He  does  not  overlook  the 
effect  of  constant  repetition  in  impressing  the  memory 
and  influencing  the  action  of  his  fellows.  All  this 
knowledge  is  essentially  of  a  psychological  nature, 
and  someone  has  called  the  art  of  Advertising  the 
practical  psychology  of  persuasion. 

Just  before  the  advertising  epoch  which  I  asked 
you  to  regard  as  modern,  repetition  was  used  almost 
to  the  limit  of  its  powers.  It  was  invented  as  an 
advertising  method  about  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  great  fortunes  were  made  with  it. 
This  kind  of  Advertising  followed  an  early  use  of 
argument  and  description.  These  had  been  used 
two  centuries  earlier  ;  they  were,  indeed,  the  method 
employed  at  the  birth  of  English  newspaper-advertis- 
ing, in  the  period  when  Dr.  Johnson  declared  that 
advertising  had  reached  such  a  stage  of  perfection 
that  it  was  impossible  to  imagine  any  improvement. 
It  would  be  easy  to  find  in  old  newspapers  examples 


PRACTICAL  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ADVERTISING       121 

of  the  plain,  straightforward  announcements  in  use  in 
the  1 8th  century.  These  were  quite  competent :  but 
one  would  not  call  many  of  them  bold  advertisements. 
About  1850,  enterprising  traders  began  to  use  large 
and  frequent  announcements  in  the  Press  and  on  the 
hoardings,  each  consisting  entirely  of  the  name 
of  the  goods.^  So  large  a  business  as  that  of  Pears' 
soap  was  built-up  on  various  manifestations  of  this 
one  idea — that  the  word  '  Pears '  should  be  so  con- 
stantly before  the  public  eye,  that  no  one  could  think 
of  soap  without  also  thinking  of  Pears'  soap.  They^ 
did  not  tell  you  anything  about  the  goods — only 
that  Pears  sold  soap.  I  remember  many  advertise- 
ments that  did  not  contain  even  the  word  '  soap  '^ 
only  'Pears' — and  one  that  did  not  contain  even 
that  in  any  prominent  way,  but  a  mere  picture  of 
the  fruit  and  an  intimation  that  this  was  the 
way  to  pronounce  the  word.  And  numerous  pro- 
ducts are  still  advertised  by  the  title  alone.  The 
psychological  method  of  this  Advertising  was,  in 
a  sense,  an  appeal  to  laziness.  By  the  time  you 
had  had  '  Pears'  Soap '  presented  to  your  mind 
a  sufficient  number  of  times,  you  were  very  apt  to 
say  *  Pears'  '  if  the  shopkeeper  asked  you  what 
sort  of  soap  you  required.  The  resulting  sale  was 
a  sort  of  fatigue-product,  to  borrow  a  term  from 
physiology.  If  you  liked  Pears'  soap  when  you 
got  it  home  and  used  it,  you  would  ask  for  it  again 
because  it  agreed  with  your  taste.  Then,  as  now, 
the  goods  must  be  all  right  or  the  Advertising  would 
be  all  wrong.  Advertisers  who  had  not  discovered 
this  last  principle  lost  money  then,  as  advertisers 
who  do  not  give  value  for  money  lose  it  now. 

*  Vide  supra,  p.  3. 


122  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

The  appeal  to  reason  is  gradually  supplanting, 
with  a  public  of  ever-growing  intelligence,  the  semi- 
hypnotic  plan  of  repetition.  It  is  discoverable  that 
if  you  give  people  a  reason  for  preferring  your  goods, 
you  do  not  need  to  spend  so  much  on  finding  a 
customer,  provided  you  give  them  a  reason  in  the 
right  way.  That  is  what  Advertising  is  for,  never 
forget — to  make  a  customer,  through  the  merit  of 
the  merchandise  advertised,  not  merely  to  make 
a  sale  through  the  merit  of  the  advertisement. 
Advertising  sells  the  goods  once.  The  goods  must 
sell  the  goods  thereafter. 

Following,  though  at  a  considerable  distance  in 
time,  the  improvements  in  printing  and  engraving 
which  developed  from  1880  onwards,  a  gradual 
advance  in  the  attractiveness  and  propriety  of 
advertisements  set  in.  Display  became  more  re- 
strained. Illustration  lost  some  of  its  ugliness.  In 
pictorial  and  decorative  design,  and  also  in  respect 
of  pure  typography,  the  best  modern  advertising 
gives  little  offence  to  taste.  Dense  and  exaggerated 
black  type  has  defeated  its  own  purpose  :  even  a 
very  brief  examination  of  a  good  m^odern  newspaper 
will  show  how  much  artistic  genius  has  been  expended 
in  the  designing  of  type-faces  which  achieve  by  con- 
trast of  form  the  prominence  which  the  old  type- 
founders could  only  obtain  by  size  and  blackness. 

Along  with  the  improvement  in  material  form  has 
come  an  almost  equally  striking  improvement  in 
literary  workmanship.  Vulgarity  and  the  coarse 
clamour  of  the  old  advertisement-writers  have  given 
place  to  simplicity  not  unmingled  with  epigram.  The 
art  of  the  descriptive  writer  has  been  adapted  to  the 
needs  of  commerce.     A  critical  examination  of  such 


PRACTICAL  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ADVERTISING       123 

newspaper  advertisements  as  deal  in  detailed  descrip- 
tion would  reveal  much  literary  talent.  The  writer 
of  advertisements  must^express  himself  with  a  most 
pellucid  clearness.  No  word  or  sentence  must  fail 
to  convey  to  even  a  careless  reader  vivid  and 
immediate  impressions.  Verbiage  and  loose  writing 
are  excluded  through  the  intimate  necessities  of  the 
advertisement-writer's  work.  Every  superfluous 
line  either  adds  to  the  cost  of  the  announcement, 
or  will  enforce  a  destructive  crowding  of  the  type. 
Where  a  man  has  to  tell  his  story  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  be  instantly  understood,  while  yet  using  so  few 
words  that  a  limited  space  will  permit  the  use  of 
clearly  legible  type,  he  is  forced  to  be  a  stylist  in  the 
very  best  sense.  He  must  contrive  an  exact  suita- 
bility of  manner  to  subject,  which  is  the  essence 
of  a  good  literary  style.  He  dare  not  use  any  but 
the  plainest  and  simplest  words  ;  and  an  almost 
Elizabethan  directness  is  forced  upon  him  There 
is  nothing  really  paradoxical  in  the  opinion  that 
practice  in  advertisement-writing  of  the  best  modern 
kind  would  be  admirable  training  for  any  beginner 
in  literature.  Few  novels  of  the  circulating-library 
type  are  as  well  written  as  the  best  advertisements 
and  advertising  pamphlets. 

This  literary  deftness  is  especially  valuable  in  a 
form  of  advertising  appeal  which  of  late  years  has 
been  increasingly  used — I  mean  the  appeal  to  emotion. 
Among  commercial  advertisers,  the  proprietors  of 
an  admirable  infant-food,  Glaxo,  have  been  con- 
spicuously successful.  The  picture  of  a  nice,  fat 
baby  is  material  common  to  them  and  all  their  com- 
petitors. But  an  emotional  note  in  the  wording 
is  characteristic  of  this  firm's  advertising,  introduced 


124  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

with  reserve  and  admirably  good  taste,  and  backed 
up  with  sound  scientific  argument  and  good  pictures. 
But  of  course  the  most  prominent  example  of  the 
emotional  note  in  newspaper  advertising  has  been 
the  War  Loan  copy.  When  it  is  remembered  that 
this  produced  subscriptions  at  only  07  per  cent,  of 
advertising  expense,  the  efficiency  of  the  emotional 
appeal  is  easily  realised.  One  of  the  most  successful 
of  the  advertisements  produced  by  Sir  Hedley  Le 
Bas's  Recruit-advertising  Committee,  of  which  I  was 
a  member,  was  the  one  which  began,  '  Father,  what 
did  you  do  in  the  Great  War  ?  '  It  was  used  in  the 
press  and  as  a  poster.  It  was  severely  criticised  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  made  me  smart  a  little, 
for  I  think  I  was  mainly  responsible  for  this  particular 
advertisement.  But  from  official  information  it  is 
known  that  this  advertisement  fetched  the  men. 
The  coal-economy  advertisements  this  winter  have 
also  sounded  the  emotional  note. 

The  difference  between  the  big-name  advertise- 
ment and  what  is  called  technically  '  Reason-why ' 
copy  is  the  difference  between  Publicity  and  Adver- 
tising in  the  strict  sense.  Publicity — '  Pears'  Soap ' 
and  nothing  else  :  '  Oxo  '  and  no  more — announces. 
Advertising  disseminates  information,  which  of 
course  is  what  the  word  really  means. 

A  majority  of  newspaper-advertisements,  and 
almost  all  posters,  are  a  mixture  of  the  two.  You 
display  the  name  of  the  product  in  large  type.  You 
describe  it  in  small  type.  If  the  advertisement 
is  not  read  through,  the  trade-mark  has  at  least  been 
impressed  on  the  mind,  and  this  has  a  certain  value. 

Obviously  it  has  only  a  limited  value.  An 
advertisement  has  three  functions  to  perform.     It  has 


PRACTICAL  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ADVERTISING       125 

to  attract  the  attention,  convince  the  intelligence, 
and  influence  the  actions  of  as  many  persons  as 
possible.  The  last  of  tl^ese  functions — less  delicately 
known  as  clinching  the  sale — is,  of  course,  the  practical 
object  of  the  advertisement,  the  reason  for  spending 
the  advertiser's  money. 

Suppose  we  consider  these  three  things — to 
attract,  to  convince,  and  to  persuade — one  by  one, 
in  a  practical  spirit.  What  is  the  most  efficient  way 
of  attracting  attention  ?  By  this  I  mean — confining 
ourselves,  for  the  moment,  to  Press-advertisements — 
how  can  you  obtain  the  maximum  of  attention 
with  a  minimum  of  space  ?  Obviously  there  are 
two  implements  at  your  disposal — words  and  pic- 
tures. For  the  moment,  everything  in  the  way  of 
decoration  or  artistic  treatment,  other  than  actual 
pictures,  may  be  ignored,  or  regarded  as  a  question 
of  typography,  with. which  I  shall  deal  separately. 
The  choice,  as  between  word  and  picture,  depends 
upon  a  great  many  things,  when  we  bear  that  word 
*  efficiency  '  in  mind. 

As  a  general  principle,  there  is  no  doubt  in  the 
matter.  Of  course  pictures  attract  more  people's 
attention  than  anything  else,  though  the  attention 
which  they  attract  has  not  the  same  intensity  as 
the  attention  attracted  by  words.  When  you  next 
travel  in  the  tube  railway,  watch  anyone  who  has 
just  bought  an  illustrated  magazine.  He  may  not 
be  particularly  fond  of.  pictures.  He  may  not  have 
very  much  taste  for  art.  Indeed,  if  he  had,  there 
would  be  little  in  most  of  these  magazines  to  attract 
him.  But  whoever  he  is,  or  she  is,  invariably  the 
first  thing  that  happens  is  that  the  pages  are  turned 
over  and  all  the  pictures  looked  at.     After  this,  the 


126  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

Story  which  has  the  most  interesting  pictures  is  read. 
Similarly  an  advertisement  with  a  picture  will  be 
looked  at ;  but  it  will  not  be  read  unless  the  picture 
is  interesting.  Mere  beauty  is  not  enough.  The 
reader  of  a  magazine  turns  from  picture  to  picture : 
no  amount  of  beauty  in  the  illustrations  stops  his 
progress  through  the  book.  In  the  same  way,  an 
illustrated  advertisement  is  always  looked  at.  The 
problem  is  to  make  people  read  it.  Pictures  make 
a  lot  of  people  look  at  an  advertisement,  but  they 
do  not  look  so  hard  or  so  long  at  a  picture  as  they  do 
at  a  telling  headline.  When  you  have  captured 
the  eye  with  a  picture  you  must  hold  it  with  your 
wording.  In  that  wording  you  must  tell  the  story 
that  will  sell  the  goods.  And  the  place  where  you 
must  look  for  the  story  to  tell  is  in  the  goods  them- 
selves. An  accomplished  writer  of  advertisements 
has  said,  '  Though  on  the  surface  your  product  and 
the  competing  ones  may  be  "  as  like  as  two  peas  " 
yet  there  is  a  way  to  make  your  product  stand  out 
from  the  rest  like  the  one  white  pea  in  a  pod.'  You 
will  not  do  this  by  peculiarities  of  typography  or 
decoration.  You  must  do  it  by  studying  the  goods 
until  you  have  found  the  selling  point  that  gives 
individuality  to  what  you  advertise. 

It  is  quite  possible  to  have  a  picture  in  an  ad- 
vertisement that  is  too  good.  The  main  interest  must 
lie  in  the  message,  not  the  illustration,  if  you  want 
the  announcement  to  sell  the  goods.  Pictures  have 
other  uses  than  to  attract  attention  ;  but  when  you 
are  using  a  picture  primarily  to  attract  attention, 
you  will  be  spending  money  on  it  inefficiently  if  it 
does  not  at  once  direct  attention  from  itself  to  the 
text  of  your  announcement.     When  it  is  practicable 


PRACTICAL  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ADVERTISING       127 

to  do  so — and  this  happens  oftener  in  a  pamphlet 
than  in  a  newspaper  advertisement — always  put  a  title, 
technically  called  the  cul^line,  under  a  picture.  Words 
purporting  to  describe  a  picture  are  always  read. 

The  character  and  taste  of  an  illustration  are 
important  for  their  suggestive  value.  Psychologists 
have  a  doctrine  of  the  association  of  ideas.  When 
an  idea  has  occurred  once  in  connection  with  another 
idea,  there  is  a  probability  that  one  of  these  ideas, 
if  it  recurs,  will  revive  the  other  idea.  This  is  rather 
an  abstruse  explanation  of  the  perfectly  obvious  fact, 
that  if  you  want  to  suggest  good  taste,  quality,  and 
refinement  in  your  goods,  it  will  be  unwise  to  attract 
attention  by  means  of  an  ugly,  cheap-looking,  or  coarse 
illustration.  But  another  association  of  ideas  is 
worth  mentioning.  If  the  announcements  of  a  firm 
are  habitually  artistic  and  beautiful,  the  firm  becomes 
cumulatively  associated  in  the  public  mind  with  ideas 
of  refinement  and  good  taste.  The  pictures  may  not 
necessarily  represent  the  merchandise  of  the  firm. 
Consider,  for  a  moment,  the  posters  used  in  the 
District  Underground  Railway  by  Messrs.  Derry  & 
Toms.  It  is  not  guessing  very  hard  to  consider  that 
few  of  these  pictures  represent  the  actual  goods  for 
sale.  Yet,  by  their  very  high  character,  and  often 
their  real  beauty,  they  certainly  lead  one  to  believe 
that  a  lady  who  wanted  pretty  frocks  and  hats  could 
not  go  far  wrong  by  addressing  herself  to  a  shop 
that  could  choose  such  lovely  poster-designs. 

While  on  this  subject  of  suggestion  by  association 
of  ideas  suggestions  of  one  or  two  other  kinds  may  be 
mentioned.  One  advertiser  of  plated  spoons  and 
forks  hunted  the  world  for  perfect  specimens  of  beauti- 
ful old  lace,  to  be  reproduced  as  backgrounds  for 


128  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

pictures  of  his  goods.  You  could  hardly  think  of  a 
better  association.  The  Cadbury  advertisements 
and  illustrations  of  '  the  factory  in  a  garden  '  con- 
tained a  toothsome  suggestion  of  cocoa  and  choco- 
lates made  in  pure,  clean  air.  An  American  pickle- 
manufacturer,  Heinz,  published  in  advertisements 
and  on  wrappings  a  standing  invitation  to  any- 
one visiting  the  neighbourhood  to  come  in  and 
be  conducted  over  the  factory.  Many  came,  and 
received  a  hospitable  welcome ;  but  man^t  millions 
inferred  by  suggestion  that  the  wares  of  this  factory 
must  be  good,  if  the  manufacturers  could  afford  to  let 
everyone  see  them  made.     A  Scottish  dyeing  and 


cleaning  firm,  Turnbulls  Limited,  of  Hawick,  adopted 
a  very  simple  device  for  a  trade-mark — just  a  circle 
with  a  T  in  it  and  the  words  'The  sign  of  good 
work,'  and  called  their  home-town  '  Hawick-among- 
the-Hills.'  What  a  suggestion  of  cleanliness  and 
open-air  that  contains  !  And  as  for  the  *  good-work ' 
device,  it  did  more.  Messrs.  Turnbulls  painted  it  on 
every  basket  used  in  the  works,  and  put  it  up  on  the 
walls,  on  machines,  and  so  forth,  and  it  had  an  actually 
visible  effect  in  improving  the  work  done  by  their 
workpeople — through  its  suggestive  value.  No  other 
dyeing  and  cleaning  firm  does  nearly  such  good 
work.     The  sign  helped. 

The  second  way  of  attracting  attention  is  by 


PRACTICAL  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ADVERTISING       129 

words  displayed  in  large  type.  I  am  not  referring  to 
the  display  of  the  title  of  the  goods.  This  does  not 
attract  attention  to  ^e  advertisement,  unless  the 
reader  is  actually  looking  for  an  announcement  of  a 
class  of  goods  which  he  requires.  It  only  ensures 
that  he  shall  not  turn  the  page  without  seeing  the 
name.  I  refer  to  something  other  than  the  names 
of  products — to  what  are  called  headlines.  These 
attract  in  a  way  that  I  think  a  picture  ought  to 
attract — by  provoking  curiosity  and  interest.  The 
association  of  ideas  concerning  the  goods  advertised 
with  the  taste  of  the  advertisements  is  just  as  potent 
here  as  with  pictures.  You  must  use  judgment.  If 
a  headline  is  sufficiently  violent,  it  will  make  people 
look  at  any  advertisement.  But  they  will  look  with 
little  benefit  to  the  advertiser  if  their  taste  is  shocked, 
their  dignity  offended.  It  is  necessary  to  distinguish 
a  little,  though.  We  are  here  to  discuss  Advertising, 
and  not  exclusively  advertisements  which  appeal  to 
persons  of  good  taste.  Within  limits,  and  if  you  are 
selling  something  exclusively  to  the  uneducated,  you 
may  let  yourself  go  a  little  :  you  may  shock,  astonish, 
or  trick  the  reader  with  advertisements  headed 
'  Murder,'  or  '  A  girl  with  three  hands,'  or  '  A  Barking 
Man.'  The  last  was  actually  used,  and  attracted 
plenty  of  readers.  It  referred  to  a  man  who  lived 
in  the  suburb  of  Barking,  enjoying  good  health 
attributable  to  a  justly  celebrated  pill ! 

Writing  a  good  headline  is  an  art  worth  cultivat- 
ing. Such  a  headline  should  be  dignified,  relevant, 
sincere,  and  especially  it  must  be  calculated  to 
awaken  at  least  interest — if  possible,  curiosity.  There 
is  no  sovereign  recipe  for  the  creation  of  headlines, 
but  I  can  tell  you  one  or  two  dodges.     One,  which 


130  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

has  often  served  me,  is  to  write  the  headline  either  last, 
or  after  you  have  written  some  of  the  text.  The 
text  will  generally  be  longer  in  the  first  manuscript 
than  in  the  final  proof,  by  the  way.  While  the 
earliest  enthusiasm  warms  your  pen,  and  you  are 
writing  a  thousand  words  or  so  that  v/ill  presently 
have  to  be  blue-pencilled  down  to  something  under 
a  hundred,  you  will  very  often  strike  fire — and  the 
spark  will  become  a  headline.  Another  way  to  find 
suggestions  for  headlines  is  to  turn  over  some  popular 
newspaper  or  periodical  and  read  the  titles  of  articles 
— especially  the  short  ones.  You  will  not  often  find 
anything  that  you  can  transcribe.  But,  if  your 
experience  is  like  mine,  some  association  of  ideas  will 
often  fling  into  your  brain  just  the  words  that  you 
want — words  quite  unlike  anything  that  you  are 
reading.  But  don't  look  for  headlines  in  other 
people's  advertisements.  Most  of  these  will  be  bad 
and  all  of  them  are  best  left  out  of  your  own  mind. 
Be  original. 

Having  adopted  a  means  of  attracting  a  reader's 
attention,  your  next  task  (you  will  remember  my 
saying)  is  to  convince  his  intelligence.  Usually 
this  will  be  by  words.  Sometimes  a  picture  helps. 
As  it  is  not  desirable  to  have  more  pictures  than  you 
are  obliged  to  have  in  any  one  announcement,  it  will 
be  a  happy  thing  if  the  illustration  which  attracts 
can  also  convince.  Without  laying  down  a  firm 
rule — one  advertisement  one  picture — because  there 
are  certain  exceptions,  it  is  certainly  easier  to  avoid 
confusion,  especially  when  the  advertisement  is 
smaller  than  half  a  page,  if  you  can  make  one  illustra- 
tion sufiice.  But  when  another  picture  will  strengthen 
the  argument,  use  it.     This  will   most  often  occur 


PRACTICAL  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ADVERTISING       131 

when  you  are  selling  some  mechanical  product — 
a  sewing-machine,  a  typewriter,  a  gramophone,  a 
motor-car — where  the'*distinguishing  feature  can  be 
illustrated.  Sometimes  a  very  convincing  effect 
can  be  obtained  in  a  well-printed  publication,  if  you 
use  the  picture  in  half  strength  all  over  except  in  the 
one  distinctive  feature  :  or  you  may  picture  the  entire 
machine,  with  one  part  uncovered  to  show  the 
mechanism.  Suppose,  for  instance,  it  were  a  motor- 
car, with  a  particularly  strong  crankshaft,  or  a  crank- 
shaft of  a  distinctive  shape.  You  could  show  this 
shaft  in  full  strength,  and  the  rest  of  the  car  in  ghostly 
shadow.  Or  if  it  were  a  sewing-machine  with  a  new 
needle-action,  you  could  use  a  half-tone  of  the  whole 
affair,  with  the  front  of  the  thing  which  carries  the 
needle-holder  taken  off,  exposing  the  reciprocating 
mechanism  that  moves  the  needle  up  and  down. 
In  either  case  the  text  would  of  course  explain 
convincingly  that  this  kind  of  crankshaft,  or  this 
kind  of  needle-shaft,  was  an  indispensable  feature 
of  a  good  motor-car  or  sewing-machine.  This  kind 
of  picture  does  arouse  curiosity,  and  so  it  is  a  very 
useful  kind  for  your  purpose.  But  of  course  there 
are  various  devices — the  arrow,  pointing  to  the 
distinctive  part ;  or  the  little  tablets,  with  words 
explaining  different  features — that  you  can  use. 
It  is  useless  for  me  to  tell  you  what  can  be  done. 
The  important  thing  for  me  to  impress  upon  you, 
is  the  desirability — nay,  the  necessity — of  thinking 
out  a  way  of  your  own.  It  is  originality,  initiative, 
ingenuity  that  make  an  advertisement-writer. 

Of  course  there  are  objects  which  do  not  admit 
of  this  kind  of  picture.  There  are  objects  that  cannot 
be  pictured  at  all,  in  this  sense.     A  picture  is  not 


132  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

the  same  as  an  illustration.  You  cannot  make  a 
picture  of  what  a  particular  kind  of  tobacco  tastes 
like,  or  how  a  brand  of  underwear  feels.  Neither 
can  you  draw  the  interesting  nature  of  a  book,  the 
protective  quality  of  a  disinfectant,  or  the  advantages 
of  an  insurance  company.  You  may  draw  something 
suggestive  of  these  :  as  one  insurance  company 
used  the  Rock  of  Gibraltar  to  typify  its  own 
impregnable  stability. 

I  am  going  to  discuss  advertisement-writing — or 
copy-writing,  as  it  is  technically  called — in  more 
detail  immediately,  after  finishing  with  the  three 
duties  of  an  advertisement — to  attract,  to  convince, 
and  to  persuade.  If  your  middle  portion,  the  portion 
that  convinces,  is  done  properly,  the  battle  of 
exercising  influence,  or  clinching  the  sale,  is  nearly 
won.  You  have  now  to  use  the  final  argument 
which  will  send  the  reader  to  the  shop,  or  make  him 
write  a  cheque  and  a  letter.  Advertising-men  use 
an  expression — a  piece  of  advertising  slang — which 
suggests  rather  amusingly  the  right  treatment  here. 
They  talk  about  putting  the  *  punch '  into  an 
advertisement.  This  element,  not  very  easy  to 
describe — this  '  punch  ' — does  not  belong  only  to 
the  conclusion.  It  should  be  inherent  in  the  whole. 
It  means  making  the  advertisement,  by  picture, 
argument,  and  conclusions,  irresistible.  It  means 
making  the  reader  feel  that  he  must  have  the  goods, 
whatever  the  cost.  There  is  only  one  recipe  for  it. 
You  must  believe  that  he  ought  to  have  the  goods. 
You  must  be  enthusiastic  about  them  yourself.  And 
indeed  there  is  no  other  way  to  write  advertisements 
that  will  sell  anything.  Enthusiasm  of  the  right 
kind  will  teach  you  to  put  your  claim  into  words  that 


PRACTICAL  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ADVERTISING       133 

burn,  and  satisfy  you  that  it  is  enough  to  tell  the 
simple  truth.  The  goods  must  be  too  good  to  need 
exaggeration.  ^ 

Coming  now  to  the  actual  writing  of  advertise- 
ments, I  must  warn  you  that  neither  I  nor  anyone 
else  can  teach  you  to  do  this  by  merely  talking  to 
you  about  it.  All  I  can  tell  you  is  that  you  have 
to  produce  a  psychological  effect  by  literary  means. 
You  have  to  find  the  words  which  will  make  the 
reader  of  them  see  what  you  see.  It  isn't  done  by 
reading  other  people's  advertisements  and  trying  to 
write  something  not  much  worse,  any  more  than 
writing  a  novel  is  done  by  studying  other  novels. 
Young  advertisement-writers  and  young  novelists 
always  begin  like  that.  I  began  thus — in  both 
fields.  But  until  I  went  to  direct  observation  of 
life  for  my  novels  and  direct  study  of  the  goods  for 
my  advertisements,  I  never  wrote  a  novel  that  any 
publisher  wanted  to  pay  me  for,  or  an  advertisement 
that  would  have  sold  half  a  crown's  worth  of  goods. 
It  has  been  said,  in  words  worthy  to  be  erected  in 
letters  of  gold  in  every  advertiser's  copy-room,  that 
in  advertising  it  is  necessary  to  say  new  things  and 
striking  things  about  the  goods  ;  but  that  the  way 
to  make  good  advertisements  is  not  to  study  new 
and  striking  words,  but  to  study  the  goods. 

That  is  the  root  of  the  matter,  and  it  cannot 
be  asseverated  with  too  much  force,  or  said  too  often. 
You  must  live  with  the  goods,  buy  the  goods,  and 
believe  in  the  goods,  before  you  can  make  other 
people  believe  in  them  and  buy  them. 

I  am  not  saying  that  this  is  the  whole  art.  Adver- 
tisement-writing is  a  highly  specialised  calling.  It 
is  not  enough  to  know  how  to  write  good  English — 


134  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

though  the  best  of  English  is  not  too  good.  If  you 
have  not  a  good  English  style,  you  must  acquire  one  : 
and  the  only  way  to  acquire  it  is  to  read  with  loving 
attention  the  work  of  the  masters  of  English.  What- 
ever success  may  seem  to  be  attained  by  those  whose 
practice  is  otherwise,  there  is  no  occasion  to  write 
ungrammatically  or  use  slang  in  order  to  put  the 
*  punch  '  into  your  writing.  Read  the  speech  of 
Henry  V  before  Agincourt,  in  Shakespeare.  It  is 
the  purest,  most  pellucid  English,  and  nothing 
ever  written  in  any  language  ever  had  more  '  punch  ' 
in  it.  Read  *  Paradise  Lost.'  It  is  as  full  of  ringing 
phrases  as  any  that  an  advertisement-writer  joyfully 
underscored  for  headlines.  I  never  read  the  essays 
of  Lord  Macaulay — and  I  read  them  often,  with 
loving  admiration — without  reflecting  what  a  glorious 
copy-writer  he  would  have  made  !  You  will  write 
better  English  if  you  know  the  classical  languages, 
and  French  too,  for  their  precision  ;  but  English  is 
a  better  language  than  any  of  them  for  your  purpose. 
It  is  the  best  language  in  the  world  for  advertising. 
It  is  flexible,  copious,  vigorous,  and  it  is  richer  than 
any  other  modern  language  in  synonyms.  Each  word 
which  the  '  Thesaurus  ' — that  useful  book — offers 
you,  has  some  shade  of  different  suggestion  in  it, 
acquired  through  association  of  ideas  from  derivation, 
from  its  very  sound,  from  the  use  to  which  it  has  been 
put  in  a  literature  with  which  all  speakers  of  English 
are  unconsciously  saturated,  however  humble,  how- 
ever little  literary.  I  hope  that  whatever  else  you 
may  do,  if  you  adopt  the  calling  of  advertisement- 
writing,  you  will  do  nothing  to  debase  the  currency 
which  is  your  heritage.  Nothing  can  give  more  force 
to  what  you  write  than    English  undefiled.     There 


PRACTICAL  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ADVERTISING       135 

is  a  text-book,  which  I  venture  to  recommend  to 
copy-writers,  to  help  them  in  avoiding  slovenly, 
slipshod  English.  It  is  called  *  The  King's  English,' 
published  at  the  Clarendon  Press,  Oxford,  and  in 
London  by  Henry  Frowde. 

I  have  said  that  copy-writing  is  highly  specialised 
work.  It  is  required  of  the  copy-writer,  as  of  the 
actor,  that  whatever  he  does,  he  must  never  be 
otherwise  than  clear.  Taking  as  his  material  a 
mass  of  complicated  facts,  he  must  disentangle  what 
has  to  be  said  and  present  it  with  pellucid  simplicity. 
If  you  have  ever  sat  in  court  and  heard  a  barrister 
expound  his  case  to  a  jury,  you  have  had  a  lesson  in 
copy-writing.  He  has  a  certain  case  to  prove.  He 
arranged  the  facts  in  their  order — facts,  facts,  facts, 
and  again  facts — and  he  marshals  them  to  the  proof. 
When  he  reaches  it,  he  gives  the  jury  the  opportunity 
to  draw  the  right  deduction.  He  does  not  labour 
the  point.  His  effort  is  to  make  his  last  sentence 
final — to  make  what  he  wants  them  to  do  the  only 
possible  thing  that  they  can  do.  And  all  through, 
he  has  never  uttered  a  sentence  which  contained 
the  smallest  ambiguity,  never  used  a  long  or  a  strange 
word  where  a  short  or  a  familiar  one  would  serve, 
never  sought  to  seem  clever,  but  rather  to  make  his 
jurymen  feel  that  they  themselves  are  clever  for 
being  able  to  agree  with  him. 

Thus,  and  not  otherwise,  should  advertisements 
be  written.  I  would  especially  emphasise  the  danger 
of  being  too  clever — or  making  yourself  seem  clever. 
An  advertisement  which  gives  the  reader  that  im- 
pression almost  always  engenders  suspicion,  where 
every  advertisement  should  beget  confidence.  Facts, 
definitely  stated,  are  what  sell  goods.     Cram  your 


136  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

advertisements  with  them  and  you  will  go  far.  It 
is  fact  that  people  want  about  the  goods  that  they 
are  asked  to  buy.  The  mistake  that  an  advertise- 
ment-writer most  often  makes  is  that  he  gives  the 
public  his  opinion  about  the  goods,  instead  of  facts 
about  them.  The  public  does  not  want  to  know 
what  you  think,  but  what  you  sell. 

That  is  one  reason  why  you  must  study  the  goods. 
If  you  look  closely  at  any  product,  you  will  always 
be  able  to  find  distinctive  character  in  it.  The 
fact  which  distinguishes  your  product  from  another 
is  the  one  on  which  you  should  dwell.  It  has  been 
cynically  said  that  the  art  of  advertisement-writing 
is  to  find  out  wherein  a  product  is  distinctive,  and 
say  that  this  is  the  only  thing  that  matters.  Oftener 
than  not,  a  manufacturer,  when  he  comes  for  advice 
about  Advertising  for  the  first  time,  tells  me  that 
his  article  is  just  the  same  as  his  competitor's.  I 
put  him  to  the  torture,  and  after  a  while  he  exudes 
distinguishing  points  at  every  pore.  But  when  you 
do  this,  be  careful.  The  thing  which  people  will 
most  readily  admit  is  the  wretched  quality  of  the 
stuff  the  other  fellow  makes.  This  is  dangerous 
material  for  the  advertisement-writer.  If  you  go 
to  work  to  tell  the  public  about  the  undesirable 
qualities  of  your  competitor's  goods  you  are  more 
likely  to  set  them  against  the  whole  class  than  to 
sell  your  own  goods.  I  can  think  of  nothing  much  less 
likely  to  promote  the  sale  of  a  beer  than  the  statement 
that  it  contains  no  arsenic.  You  don't  want  people 
thinking  about  arsenic  when  you  are  talking  about 
beer.  Negative  advertising  is  barren  and  dead. 
It  is  positive  talk  that  obtains  action.  The  less 
you  say — and   even   think — about   competition   the 


PRACTICAL  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ADVERTISING       137 

better  your  copy  will  be.  Do  not  even  allude  to  the 
rival  product  by  using  degrees  of  comparison  in  your 
adjectives — whether  tlje  comparative  degree  or  the 
superlative.  Say  that  your  soap  is  good  soap,  if 
you  can't  find  anything  better  to  say ;  but  don't 
say  it  is  the  best  soap.  Superlatives  are  always 
weak.  They  do  not  command  credence.  The 
moment  you  say  *  best '  you  suggest  the  idea  that 
as  all  advertisers  say  their  goods  are  the  best,  it 
cannot  be  true  of  all  of  the  goods  that  are  advertised. 
(They  don't  all  say  that,  but  people  are  constantly 
saying  that  they  do.)  The  superlative  has  been  over- 
worked.    Let  us  give  it  a  rest. 

One  great  objection  to  the  superlative  is  that  it 
does  not  carry  the  idea  of  definiteness.  And  definite- 
ness  is  important.  As  I  said  just  now,  the  public 
does  not  want  to  hear  what  you  think.  The  public 
wants  to  hear  what  you  know.  Facts  are  nearly 
always  definite,  opinions  are  nearly  always  the 
reverse.  Facts  convince.  Opinions  often  suggest 
an  objection.  The  more  concrete  you  can  make 
your  statements  of  fact,  the  more  convincing  they 
are.  To  say  that  a  particular  plate-polish  is  better 
than  any  other  does  not  carry  much  weight,  because 
it  is  indefinite.  What  you  state  is  a  matter  of 
opinion.  But  if  you  could  say  that  this  plate-polish 
had  been  adopted  at  the  Carlton,  the  Savoy,  the  Ritz, 
and  the  Midland  Grand  Hotel,  instead  of  what  they 
used  before,  you  would  be  saying  something  definite 
— something  that  the  reader  could  investigate  for 
himself.  If  you  said  that  a  particular  kind  of 
umbrella  had  a  larger  sale  than  any  other,  the  credence 
of  the  public  would  depend  upon  what  the  public 
thought   of   your   veracity.     But    if  you   said  that 


138  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

1,347  of  these  umbrellas  were  sold  at  Harrod's  last 
week  you  would  be  believed.  I  do  not  know  of 
anything  more  powerful  in  soap  advertising  than 
the  statement  constantly  used  by  the  American 
Ivory  Soap  Company  that  Ivory  soap  is  99*44  per 
cent  pure — far  stronger  than  saying  it  is  absolutely 
pure.  People  like  exact  figures  better  than  round 
numbers.  One  firm  doing  a  mail-order  business — 
that  is,  selling  goods  by  post — found  that  odd  prices 
did  a  lot  to  sell  goods.  A  woman's  hat  at  i^s.  3  J. 
sold  better  than  the  same  hat  at  15^-.  This  firm 
had  the  discretion,  however,  not  to  catalogue  every- 
thing at  broken  prices.     Contrast  was  needed. 

One  of  the  things  that  are  most  talked  about  and 
least  understood  in  connection  with  advertisement- 
writing  is  brevity.  An  advertiser  will  almost  always 
say  the  copy  is  too  long,  even  when  he  is  insisting 
upon  all  sorts  of  points  being  mentioned  in  each 
separate  announcement.  Young  men  in  advertising- 
agents'  copy-rooms  call  the  man  who  wields  the  blue 
pencil  the  '  copy-butcher  '  ;  but  the  man  who  rises 
to  this  bad  eminence  knows  his  work  ;  otherwise 
he  would  not  have  risen.  Often  you  can  save  words 
and  say  more.  If  you  cannot  boil  the  whole  story 
down  to  manageable  dimensions  in  one  announce- 
ment, you  can  sometimes  tell  it  by  instalments. 
Treat  one  selling-point  at  a  time,  and  trust  to  the 
superior  interest  of  copy  that  is  not  too  severely 
condensed,  to  bring  the  reader  back  next  time.  You 
obtain  what  is  called  cumulative  effect  not  by  re- 
peating the  same  advertisement  week  after  week, 
but  by  a  connected  series.  The  general  design  or 
lay-out  should  connect  the  advertisements.  They 
should    be    recognisable    at    a    glance.      But    the 


PRACTICAL  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ADVERTISING       139 

argument  should  develop  from  insertion  to  in- 
sertion. 

In  all  advertising,  change  of  copy  is  desirable. 
The  lazy  way  of  repeating  the  same  copy  year  in, 
year  out,  is  not  efficient,  not  modern.  Exaggera- 
tion is  out  of  date  too.  The  public  is  unlearning  by 
degrees  the  habit  of  deducting  50  per  cent  from 
what  an  advertisement  says,  and  all  of  us  ought  to 
do  our  share  in  winning  confidence  for  all  advertising 
by  the  sobriety  and  truthfulness  of  our  copy. 

What  is  called  with  irony  '  fine  writing '  has  no 
proper  place  in  Advertising.  The  epigram  that 
crystallises  truth  is  your  literary  opportunity — as 
when  a  certain  brewer  called  his  product  *  the  beer 
that  made  Milwaukee  famous '  and  a  breakfast-food 
man  described  his  porridge  as  containing  '  all  the 
wheat  that's  fit  to  eat ' — but  it  is  seldom  wise  to  be 
funny  in  an  advertisement.  An  example  of  epigram, 
which  some  people  might  think  excessive,  occurred 
in  the  well-remembered  closing  offers  of  the  *  Encyclo- 
paedia Britannica,'  somewhere  about  1900.  This 
great  work  was  offered  at  half  its  original  price  for 
a  limited  period — ending  on  December  31.  On  the 
20th,  an  advertisement  appeared,  reminding  the 
public  that  there  were  only  eleven  days  left  in  which 
to  take  advantage  of  this  offer,  and  adding  that 
one  of  them  was  the  shortest  day  in  the  year.  It  was 
utterly  irrelevant,  but  it  certainly  focused  atten- 
tion. Some  years  ago  Fels-naptha  soap  was  very 
extensively  advertised  with  the  offer  to  give  the 
money  back  if  the  purchaser  should  not  be  satisfied. 
Tram-tickets  were  one  medium  used — of  course  with 
very  short  copy.  I  was  shown  one  :  '  Why  money 
back  ?     Nobody  wants   the   money ' — the  name  of 


140  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

the  article  not  even  mentioned  !  Although  this  was 
the  work  of  one  of  the  greatest  masters  of  advertise- 
ment-writing, the  late  John  E.  Powers,  it  was  epigram 
run  mad. 

Mr.  Powers  relied,  of  course,  on  the  prevalence  of 
his  '  money  back '  advertising  to  supply  the  associa- 
tion of  ideas.  He  asked  the  reader  to  do  a  little 
thinking — using  the  manner  of  Milton  rather  than  the 
manner  of  Dante.  It  sounds,  in  theory,  a  good  idea 
to  make  your  reader  do  some  thinking — to  imply, 
rather  than  state  ;  to  stop  short  before  reciting  the 
inescapable  Q.E.D.  But  according  to  my  practical 
experience,  I  do  not  believe  this  is  right.  You  will 
do  well  if  readers  believe  all  that  you  tell  them.  You 
must  not  expect  them  to  supply  any  part  of  the  argu- 
ment themselves.  As  Dr.  Johnson  said,  '  Advertise- 
ments are  negligently  perused.'  Had  he  been  an 
advertisement-writer  I  do  not  think  he  would  have 
expressed  himself  just  like  that ;  but  he  would  have 
done  well  to  remember  the  fact.  I  think  the  psycho- 
logical explanation  of  it  is  that  when  people  are  being 
asked  to  buy  anything  they  are  always  on  their  guard. 
The  maxim  '  Caveat  emptor '  has  shot  its  bullet  deep 
into  their  souls. 

Of  course  all  this  is  part  of  what  I  said  before, 
about  not  being  too  clever.  The  negligent  reader  of 
advertisement  is  apt  to  take  you  too  literally.  If  you 
are  advertising  the  superiority  of  a  fine  butter  and 
wind  up  with  a  hit  at  cheap  butters  like  this  : 
'  Poor  butter  is  a  poor  thing  ;  better  buy  margarine,' 
they  may  take  you  at  your  word.  There  are  some 
phrases  that  win  fame  and  build  reputations,  but 
there  is  no  dubiety  about  them.  The  invention  of 
what  has  come  to    be  called  a  '  slogan  '  is  a  real 


PRACTICAL  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ADVERTISING       141 

advertising  achievement.  The  Kodak  slogan,  '  You 
press  the  button,  we  do  the  rest ',  has  almost  passed 
into  literature.  Anotl^er,  '  Perfectly  simple — simply 
perfect ',  did  not  do  so  well :  I  doubt  whether  anyone 
in  this  room  will  remember  what  it  belongs  to.  And 
that  brings  up  a  really  important  consideration. 
Sometimes  a  slogan  isn't  a  slogan  until  it  has  been 
printed  sufficiently  often.  The  famous  *  Good 
morning,  have  you  used  Pears'  Soap  ? '  had  nothing 
of  intrinsic  merit  in  it  :  it  is  nothing  like  so  good  on 
the  face  of  it  as  another  used  by  the  same  firm,  '  The 
King  of  Soaps  :  the  Soap  of  Kings.'  ^  What  made 
the  *  Good  morning '  phrase  look  clever  was  merely 
its  constant  repetition.  A  rival  soap-boiler  had 
the  bad  taste  and  poor  judgment  to  parody  it.  He 
published   an    advertisement   consisting   entirely   of 

these   words  :     *  Yes,    but    's    Soap    is    better ; 

Good  night.'  It  is  never  a  good  plan  to  refer  to  a 
competitor's  advertisements. 

I  do  not  want  to  say  very  much  to-night  about  the 
qualifications  required  by  a  writer  of  advertising- 
copy.  That  will  be  a  matter  for  discussion  in  my 
sixth  Lecture — the  Lecture  partly  devoted  to  Adver- 
tising as  a  career.  But  I  must  repeat  one  thing  about 
the  most  important  qualification  of  an  advertise- 
ment, and  this  implies  the  frame  of  mind  and  the 
character  of  the  man  who  writes  advertisements. 
After  some  things  that  I  have  said  to-night,  you  will 
not  be  unprepared  for  the  remark  that  a  good  ad- 
vertisement is,  in  a  sense,  and  to  a  certain  extent,  a 
work  of  art.     Now  it  is  the  peculiar  attribute  of  a 

1  This  phrase  has  been  claimed  by  another  advertiser,  the  pro- 
prietor of  Kutnow's  Carlsbad  Powder;  but  it  was  much  more 
intensively  used  by  A.  &  F.  Pears. 


142  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

work  of  art  to  betray  the  character  of  its  maker.  An 
insincere  man  or  a  man  in  an  insincere  mood  cannot 
write  a  sincere  advertisement.  This  is  no  job  to 
adventure  with  tongue  in  cheek.  The  greatest  copy- 
writers have  had  an  almost  ungovernable  passion 
for  truth.  I  am  not  sure  that  their  genius  was 
derived  from  anything  else.  Cleverness  will  not 
replace  it ;  I  have  warned  you,  and  I  shall  warn  you 
once  more  before  we  part,  against  the  dangers  of 
cleverness.  An  advertisement-writer  must  have  the 
integrity  to  write  the  truth,  and  the  imagination  to 
realise  that  nothing  but  the  truth  can  produce  the 
effect  at  which  he  is  aiming. 

But  when  I  tell  you  that  cleverness  is  no  sub- 
stitute for  honesty,  I  do  not  in  the  least  want  to 
imply  that  the  copy-writer  who  tells  the  pure  and 
simple  truth  in  his  advertisements  needs  less  clever- 
ness than  the  one  who  prefers  the  other  thing.  Some- 
one has  said  that  the  truth  is  seldom  pure  and  never 
simple.  Telling  the  truth  is  a  harder  job  when  you 
are  writing  an  advertisement  than  at  any  time  else. 
It  is  a  great  deal  easier  and  more  showy  to  exaggerate 
and  colour  your  statements.  But  this  is  not  good 
advertising.     It  does  not  really  sell  the  goods. 

What  is  required  in  order  to  write  truthful  adver- 
tising is  mainly  courage,  in  reality.  Enthusiasm 
will  help  you,  as  I  have  already  indicated.  But  it 
looks  so  easy  to  write  a  thing  up  a  little,  and  it  is 
so  difHcult  to  put  the  truth  in  a  favourable  light  and 
leave  it  there,  that  quite  a  little  nerve  is  required. 
If  you  want  to  succeed  in  copy-writing  you  must 
cultivate  the  nerve  as  well  as  the  knack. 

One  practical  remark  that  I  must  add  is  far 
removed  in  spirit  from  what  I  have  just  been  saying. 


PRACTICAL  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ADVERTISING       143 

If  anyone  here  enters  upon  the  career  of  a  copy- 
writer, he  will  not  be  long  before  he  discovers  that 
there  are  two  ways  o^  doing  his  work.  One  is  to 
write  advertisements  that  will  sell  the  goods.  The 
other  is  to  write  advertisements  that  will  please 
the  advertiser.  The  second  is  the  base  and  easy 
way.  It  is  practised  by  certain  advertising  agents. 
Of  course  an  advertiser  ought  to  be  a  judge  of  copy. 
The  fact  that  comparatively  few  advertisers  in  this 
country  are  judges  of  copy,  and  yet  that  they  make 
enviable  profits,  only  proves  what  an  extraordinarily 
powerful  commercial  weapon  advertising  is.  An 
advertiser  often  has  prejudices  and  prepossessions 
which  are  so  deeply  ingrained  in  his  mind  that  they 
can  be  easily  divined.  He  will  pass  any  piece  of 
copy  that  conforms  to  them.  You  can  see  what  a 
lot  of  thinking  this  saves  the  copy-writer.  He  does 
not  have  to  study  the  goods.  He  only  has  to  study 
the  advertiser.  He  can  thus  be  temporarily  quite 
successful  in  earning  money.  Nemesis  awaits  him. 
But  he  has  a  glittering  time  of  it  for  a  while. 

Some  advertisers  bring  this  kind  of  thing — which 
is  essentially  dishonest — upon  themselves.  They  are 
conceited  and  hypercritical.  They  will  take  a  long- 
considered,  strenuous,  well-balanced  piece  of  work, 
and  insist  upon  cutting  it  up  and  altering  it  until 
its  own  father  is  ashamed  of  it.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  are  copy-writers  whose  bump  of  self-apprecia- 
tion is  so  swollen  that  they  are  with  difficulty  per- 
suaded of  any  imperfection  in  their  work.  When  I 
get  into  an  argument  with  an  advertiser  about  any 
piece  of  copy  that  I  have  made  for  him,  I  always  do  a 
little  heart-searching  and  try  to  find  out  whether  the 
trouble  is  that  I  am  up  against  a  pig-headed  and 


144  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

senselessly  obstinate  copy-butcher,  or  whether  he  is 
up  against  something  of  the  same  sort  of  thing  in 
myself.  I  advise  the  application  of  a  similar  test 
on  similar  occasions. 

A  part  of  the  advertisement-writer's  work  is 
to  give  to  his  copy  a  suitable  typographical  form. 
This  is  done  by  selecting  type-faces,  and  making  a 
sketch,  called  a  lay-out,  to  indicate  to  the  printers 
how  the  job  is  to  be  set.  The  most  important  thing 
is  to  use  legible  characters  and  to  balance  the  black 
lines  in  proportion  to  the  small  type,  or  (as  it  is  often 
called)  the  grey  portion,  in  a  comely  manner.  You 
mark  a  line  '  14-point  Cheltenham  Bold,'  and  so  on, 
and  show  just  where  you  want  the  printer  to  place 
it,  not  forgetting  that  bold  headlines  require  some 
smaller,  lighter-faced  type  to  give  contrast.  There 
is  a  subtle  psychological  effect  in  type.  Plain,  un- 
ornamental  letters  are  like  simple,  unaffected  speech  : 
they  suggest  sincerity.  They  look  you  in  the  eye. 
Someone  has  said  that  you  can't  print  a  lie  in  Caslon 
old  style.  The  paradox  contains  the  kind  of  sug- 
gestion that  I  mean.  The  type  and  lay-out  that  are 
proper  to  one  subject  are  quite  unsuitable  to  another. 
It  is  not  fanciful  to  say  that  a  kitchen  stove  advertise- 
ment would  stand  any  degree  of  black,  strong  type, 
while  no  one  with  any  sense  of  appropriateness  would 
use  heavy  display-lines  to  advertise  lace  or  ladies' 
perfumery.  By  seeking  an  appropriate  typography 
for  each  product  which  you  are  going  to  advertise, 
you  will  avoid  what  I  regard  as  a  very  serious  fault. 

Finally,  I  cannot  too  strongly  impress  upon  you 
again,  herein  as  in  everything  else,  the  importance 
of  being  original.  You  must  not  even  copy  yourself. 
However  it  may  flatter  a  man's  vanity,  it  is  not  a 


PRACTICAL  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ADVERTISING       145 

sign  of  good  work  that  people  should  be  able  to  say, 
the  moment  they  see  an  advertisement,  '  Oh,  that's 
so-and-so's  work.'  To  make  advertisements  like 
that  is  a  great  temptation.  It  makes  a  name  for  a 
man.  But  that  is  not  your  duty.  You  are  spending 
another  person's  money.  It  is  obligatory  upon  you 
to  spend  it  for  the  purpose  of  making  his  reputation, 
not  yours.  Neither  in  wording  nor  typography 
should  an  advertisement  make  your  individuality 
conspicuous,  but  only  the  individuality  of  the  product 
which  you  are  helping  to  sell.  And,  in  the  end,  that 
is  where  your  own  success  will  lie  too.  For  in 
Advertising,  as  in  war,  no  excuses  are  tolerated.  If 
you  do  not  sell  the  goods,  you  will  have  to  go. 


LECTURE  IV 

The  Hall-Mark  of  Commerce  :   Trade-Marks 
AND  Retail  Advertising 

The  interest  of  the  purchaser  paramount — Economic  importance  of 
enabUng  consumer  to  recognise  goods — Advertising  without  a 
trade-mark,  and  trade-marks  without  Advertising — Economic 
usefulness  of  trade-marks — Advertising  expenses  should  be 
capitalised — Trade-marks  and  the  Common  Law — Origin  of  trade- 
marks— The  appeal  of  the  picture — Trade-marks  :  effective  and 
ineffective — Some  trade-mark  dangers — Trade-marks  must  be 
protected — An  official  attack  on  trade-marks — Trade-marks  that 
are  dangerous — The  substitution  problem — Two  kinds  of  sub- 
stitution— When  substitution  is  illegal — How  to  checkmate  sub- 
stitution— Mascots — The  essential  requirements  of  a  good  mascot 
— Organised  maintenance  of  retail  prices — Retail  Advertising — 
The  shop  an  equivalent  of  a  trade-mark — Retail  and  wholesale 
advertising  contrasted — When  retail  advertising  is  news — When 
retail  advertising  raised  the  circulation  of  a  newspaper — Depart- 
mental store  problems — A  Canadian  departmental  store  and  its 
mail-order  business — Retailers  in  special  lines  of  business  :  their 
problems  simpler  than  those  of  mixed  retailers — What  a  retailer 
should  advertise — Wholesalers'  advertising  to  shopkeepers — The 
commonest  defect  in  trade-paper  advertising. 

AN  important  problem  in  practical  Advertising 
is  to  make  sure  that  the  customers  v/hom 
you  have  obtained  by  your  announcement 
shall  buy,  in  consequence  of  them,  your  goods,  and 
not  anyone  else's.  It  is  no  less  important,  of  course, 
that  customers  obtained  by  the  good  quality  of 
your  wares,  whether  advertised  or  not,  shall  be  able 
to  recognise  them  next  time.  And  I  do  not  think 
you  will  deny  that  the  public  has  an  interest  in  the 
matter  too,  so  that  Advertising  which  identifies 
the  goods  has  real  economic  value. 

Indeed,  in  all  aspects  of  Advertising,  if  Advertising 
is  to  be  morally  and  economically  justified,  it  is 
important  to  consider  the  interest  of  the  purchaser. 

146 


TRADE-MARKS  AND  RETAIL  ADVERTISING        147 

In  the  majority  of  instances  the  purchaser  of  any 
unadvertised  article  knows  nothing  at  all  about  the 
place  and  conditions  gf  its  manufacture.  He  is 
compelled  to  rely  either  upon  his  own  power  of 
distinguishing  one  quality  from  another,  or  upon 
the  integrity  and  self-interest  of  the  retailer.  This 
may  be  enough.  But  in  many  cases  the  utmost 
care  would  not  protect  a  purchaser.  For  instance, 
no  one  but  an  expert  can  distinguish  a  good  razor 
from  a  bad  one,  without  trials  extending  over  some 
time.  A  poor  razor  may  shave  comfortably  enough 
for  a  time.  It  is  only  by  using  it  for  a  week  or  so 
that  the  purchaser  discovers  that,  being  improperly 
tempered,  it  will  not  hold  an  edge.  The  careful 
shaver,  when  providing  himself  with  a  new  instrument, 
consequently  looks  for  the  name  of  the  manufacturer 
on  the  shank.  Unless  this  name  has  been  made 
familiar  to  him  he  is  in  no  position  to  take  advantage 
of  it.  Everything  depends  upon  identification. 
And  similarly,  the  housewife  who  orders  household 
commodities  is  rarely  so  expert  in  distinguishing 
one  quality  of  goods  from  another  as  to  be  able  to 
tell,  without  actual  trial,  what  kind  of  sugar,  starch, 
or  coffee  yields  the  best  value  for  her  money.  Even 
when  she  has  learned  that  the  two-and-sixpenny  tea 
of  a  certain  grocer  is  a  good  tea,  and  agreeable  to 
her  household's  palate,  she  has  no  means  of  assuring 
herself  next  week  that  the  tea  she  buys  at  the  price 
will  be  the  same  tea  as  before.  She  is  wholly  at  the 
mercy  of  the  retailer,  because  she  cannot  identify 
the  blend  of  tea  ;  and  if  she  removes  to  another 
neighbourhood  she  may  be  utterly  unable  to  obtain 
the  same  commodities. 

Retailers  naturally  like  this  kind  of  thing.     Quite 


148  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

elaborate  precautions  are  sometimes  resorted  to, 
in  order  to  conceal  the  sources  from  which  a  shop- 
keeper buys.  In  many  trades  considerable  opposition 
would  be  excited  by  any  marks  on  packages  indicating 
the  manufacturer's  name.  This  is  a  relic  of  a  very 
old  state  of  affairs,  which  Advertising  is  doing  much 
to  correct,  and  the  rule  does  not  apply  to  all  com- 
modities. Biscuits,  for  instance,  are  generally  sold 
on  the  reputation  of  the  manufacturer  even  when 
they  are  not  advertised.  Some  textile  manufac- 
turers, although  they  never  advertise  in  the  general 
Press,  are  known  by  name  to  many  consumers.  But 
in  this  trade,  secrecy  as  regards  the  manufacturer  is 
very  general,  and  some  manufacturers  and  whole- 
sale traders  who  would  be  very  glad  to  make  them- 
selves known  to  the  public  are  deterred  from  doing  so 
by  fear  of  retailers'  objections.  I  have  even  seen  in 
the  Drapers^  Record,  the  leading  trade  paper,  read 
exclusively  by  the  trade,  announcements  which  did 
not  bear  the  advertiser's  name,  but  only  an  intimation 
that  this  could  be  ascertained  from  the  Editor ! 

The  advertiser's  interest  in  his  goods  being 
recognised  is  identical  with  the  consumer's,  just 
as  the  interests  of  seller  and  buyer  should,  in  all 
sound  businesses,  be  mutual.  This  is  the  same  as 
saying  that  it  is  best  for  manufacturers  to  put  a 
trade-mark  on  their  goods,  and  for  consumers  to 
prefer  goods  which  bear  a  trade-mark.  If  you  buy 
a  silver  spoon,  you  look  at  the  hall-mark.  Trade- 
marks are  the  hall-mark  of  commerce. 

A  trade-mark  that  has  been  properly  advertised 
has  tangible  value.  It  can  be  sold  for  money.  And 
this  value  protects  the  purchaser  of  the  goods — an 
important  economic  fact.     For  it  makes  it  necessary 


TRADE-MARKS  AND  RETAIL  ADVERTISING       149 

to  keep  up  the  quality.  If  the  quality  were  allowed 
to  fall,  the  reputation  of  the  brand,  and  consequently 
the  manufacturer's  investments  in  advertising,  would 
be  imperilled.  The  public,  being  able  to  recognise 
the  goods,  would  avoid  them.  If  you  are  not  going 
to  give  honest  value  for  money,  shun  trade-marks 
and  abstain  from  Advertising.  The  expenditure  of 
the  owner  upon  Advertising  is  what  creates  property 
in  trade-marks,  and  it  ought  to  be  capitalised.  If 
you  write  off  every  year  the  moneys  spent  in  that 
year's  advertising,  regardless  of  the  fact  that  some 
of  the  resulting  sale  will  arrive  next  year  and  for 
years  afterwards,  the  accountant  is  destroying  the 
advertiser's  property.  It  looks,  on  the  surface,  like 
a  very  prudent  and  conservative  policy.  But  it 
is  the  very  reverse.  A  man  who  writes  off  the 
whole  of  his  advertising  every  year  will  not  be  able 
to  sell  his  business  on  the  basis  of  his  books.  The 
goodwill  created  by  Advertising  should  be  capitalised, 
and  should  show  in  the  books  of  the  firm,  because  it 
represents  the  accumulated  value  of  the  trade-mark. 
If  every  shilling  in  the  banking  account  of  a  firm  like 
Bovril  Limited,  or  the  proprietors  of  Wolsey  Under- 
wear, were  confiscated,  every  stone  in  its  factories 
thrown  down,  every  bottle  of  Bovril  or  suit  of  under- 
wear in  stock  destroyed,  the  firm  would  still  be  the 
proprietor  of  an  invisible  asset  more  valuable  than 
the  material  properties  destroyed — its  trade-mark 
and  goodwill. 

It  is  evidently  difficult  to  advertise  anything 
which  does  not  carry  a  brand  of  identification.  If 
you  had  an  unassailable  monopoly  in  a  commodity 
like  milk  or  beer,  owning  all  the  cows  or  all  the 
breweries  that  could  conceivably  exist,  or  if  you  had 


I50  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

a  patent  on  some  article,  and  were  content  to  give 
up  the  business  when  your  patent  expired,  you  could 
command  the  market  by  advertising  the  product 
by  name,  without  branding  it.  You  may  say  that 
it  would  not  be  necessary  to  advertise  at  all,  in  a 
position  like  that.  But  this  is  a  mistake.  However 
indispensable  a  commodity  may  seem,  the  sale  of 
it  will  yet  be  increased  by  advertising.  When  one 
of  Lord  Northcliffe's  enthusiasms  gave  Standard 
bread  a  big  advertisement,  the  consumption  of 
bread  rose  all  round.  Advertising  does  not  merely 
direct  the  course  of  demand.     It  creates  demand. 

I  have  said  that  it  is  difficult  to  advertise 
profitably  without  a  trade-mark ;  but  it  is  not 
impossible.  Before  the  war,  some  very  extensive 
advertising  of  currants  was  done,  through  a  Mincing 
Lane  combination,  said  to  have  been  supported  by 
the  Greek  Government.  A  steamship-owner  adver- 
tised bananas,  in  order  to  increase  freightage.  The 
tea-growers  of  India  tax  themselves  by  a  percentage 
on  their  production,  in  order  to  advertise  tea,  quite 
apart  from  the  advertising  of  particular  brands,  thus 
increasing  general  consumption. 

I  have  mentioned  the  possibility  of  advertising 
without  a  trade-mark  only  for  the  sake  of  complete- 
ness. The  one  really  important  aspect  of  it  is  Retail 
Advertising,  where  the  shopkeeper  advertises  his 
shop,  and  obtains  his  profit  on  the  advertising 
through  the  fact  that  the  people  attracted  by  it 
must  come  to  his  shop  and  no  other.  He  will,  of 
course,  advertise  the  goods,  and  he  thinks  it  is  only 
the  goods  he  is  advertising ;  but  really  he  is  adver- 
tising the  shop,  because  if  he  had  not  the  shop, 
advertising  the  goods  would  not  profit  him.     The 


TRADE-MARKS  AND  RETAIL  ADVERTISING         151 

shop  is  really  the  equivalent  of  a  trade-mark.  People 
attracted  by  the  advertisements  will  go  there,  and 
not  elsewhere.  ^ 

In  the  overwhelming  majority  of  manufacturing 
and  wholesale  businesses  a  brand  or  trade-mark  is 
used.  It  is  greatly  to  the  benefit  of  the  public  that 
trade-marks  should  be  used,  as  I  have  already  shown. 
Trade-marks  existed  long  before  any  legal  status  was 
given  to  them.  In  the  days  when  most  tradesmen 
were  small  manufacturers,  as  the  baker  and  the 
tailor  are  to-day,  a  blacksmith  who  made,  for  instance, 
a  success  through  the  merit  of  his  spades,  would 
stamp  his  name  on  the  blade  or  the  handle.  The 
farmer,  sending  his  man  to  the  market-town,  would 
tell  him  to  buy  a  spade  at  this  man's  forge,  and  at 
no  other.  The  name  on  it  enabled  him  to  be  sure 
that  the  messenger  had  faithfully  obeyed  instructions. 
Presently,  when  wholesale  business  began  to  develop, 
the  spade  with  a  known  name  was  easier  to  sell 
than  the  spade  without  any  authority  behind  it. 
Middlemen  preferred  the  branded  article.  It  was 
easier  to  sell,  and  gave  more  satisfaction  to  their 
customers,  who  could,  moreover,  go  back  to  the 
manufacturer  if  they  had  any  complaint,  instead  of 
blaming  the  middlemen. 

Although,  in  those  early  and  rudimentary  days, 
there  was  no  law  of  trade-marks,  a  protection  existed, 
whether  it  was  taken  advantage  of  or  not.  The 
same  protection  still  exists.  The  Common  Law  of 
England  has  always  recognised  that  the  purchaser 
demanding  a  given  manufacturer's  wares  has  a  right 
to  obtain  them,  and  that  anyone  who  deceives  him 
herein  may  be  restrained,  on  the  demand  either  of 
the  purchaser  deprived  of  the  goods  that  he  wants, 


152  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

or  of  the  manufacturer  deprived  of  his  profit.  Very 
often  a  mark  that  cannot  be  registered,  or  even 
that  has  been  expunged  from  the  Register  of  Trade- 
marks because  it  was  improperly  admitted,  can  be 
justified  at  Common  Law,  on  the  ground  that  the 
public  must  not  be  deceived. 

The  law  takes  the  same  view  which  I  have 
constantly  tried  to  impress  upon  you — that  the 
consumer's  interest  is  paramount.  If  the  owner  of 
a  trade-mark  or  a  brand  is  protected,  it  is  not  for  his 
benefit  alone,  but  for  the  benefit  of  the  public.  It 
is  for  the  public  interest  that  consumiers  should  not 
be  misled  when  they  demand  goods  of  reputation. 

A  trade-mark,  to  have  practical  value,  must  be 
associated  with  a  name.  Otherwise  the  public  cannot 
ask  for  it.  It  can,  in  fact,  consist — with  certain 
statutory  and  legal  reservations — of  a  word  alone, 
or  a  word  printed  in  a  particular  manner,  even  if 
not  associated  with  any  picture  or  device.  A  picture 
or  device  has  value,  however.  I  have  been  in 
countries  where  the  people  could  not  read  English  ; 
but  they  identified  goods  by  the  English  manu- 
facturer's pictorial  trade-mark.  In  India,  for 
instance,  Horrockses'  calicoes,  I  noticed,  were  not 
called  by  his  name.  They  were  called  by  some 
Hindustani  name  such  as  Rani-ka  Kapra  ^ — Queen's 
cloth — but  they  had  a  picture  on  the  bale,  and 
without  the  picture  the  prudent  Hindu  would  have 
resolutely  refused  the  goods. 

The  appeal  of  a  picture  is  world-wide.  There- 
fore, if  you  are  called  upon  to  design  a  new  trade- 
mark suitable  for  advertising,  be  careful  to  design 
it  so  that  it  is  an  advertisement  in  itself  when  it 

^  Pronounced  Rahnee  kS.  Kupra. 


TRADE-MARKS  AND  RETAIL  ADVERTISING        153 

appears  on  the  goods  or  on  the  package  which  con- 
tains them.  You  are  going  to  send  something  to 
the  shopkeeper  to  seli,  nine  times  out  of  ten.  Let 
your  package,  with  the  trade-mark  on  it,  be  dis- 
tinctive. Let  it  also,  as  a  rule,  be  showy.  Most 
of  the  successful  novelties  advertised  during  the  last 
few  years  have  had  a  good  package  to  help  them, 
and  an  article  that  lacks  this  advantage  is  un- 
necessarily handicapped.  It  is  just  as  easy  to  design 
an  efficient  package  and  just  as  cheap  to  print  it, 
as  to  design  and  print  the  other  kind. 

This  does  not  only  apply  to  goods  sold  in  shops. 
I  recall  an  amusing  example  in  the  business  of  a 
manufacturer  of  cement.  He  had  a  trade-mark,  of 
which  the  most  important  part  was  an  arbitrarily- 
coined  name.  But  the  trade-mark  had  been  designed 
by  an  artist  who  thought  that  his  business  was  to 
design  something  as  complicated  and  fanciful  as 
possible.  He  also  kept  in  the  fashion,  designing 
the  same  kind  of  mark  that  wsLSjn  the  most  general 
use,  just  as  cigar  manufacturers  seem  determined  to 
have  their  box-labels  as  nearly  all  alike  as  possible. 
The  consequence  was,  that  when  a  bag  of  this  man's 
cement  had  been  opened  and  spilled  a  little,  and 
kicked  about  generally,  even  he  himself  could  hardly 
tell  it  from  his  most  deadly  rival's.  Presently  an 
advertising-man  persuaded  him,  among  other  things, 
to  cut  out  all  the  ornamentation  and  have  the  name 
printed  in  the  largest,  plainest  type  that  could  be 
found,  right  across  the  bag.  Nowadays,  I  am 
told,  hundreds  of  these  bags  are  to  be  seen  round 
buildings  in  course  of  erection,  and  the  name  of  the 
product  is  clearly  visible  across  the  street.  The 
manufacturer  would  not  go  back  to  the  old  mark  on 


154  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

any  account.  He  realises  that  one  of  his  cement- 
bags  is  almost  as  good  an  outdoor  advertisement  as 
a  small  poster. 

Of  course,  this  would  not  be  of  any  use  to  him 
if  the  name  were  not  a  good  and  a  distinctive  one. 
Coining  a  name  for  a  trade-mark  is  not  easy.  By 
statute,  it  must  not  be  a  geographical  or  descriptive 
name — for  if  one  man  were  allowed  to  monopolise 
the  name  of  the  place  where  an  article  came  from, 
or  the  generic  title  of  it,  he  would  have  an  unfair 
advantage.  China  tea.  West  Indian  bananas, 
French  silk  are  descriptive  terms,  as  well  as 
geographical  names  :  therefore  they  cannot  be 
registered.  A  trade-mark  must  not  be  in  any  way 
descriptive.  You  must  lend  descriptive  value  to  it 
by  your  advertising.  Just  as  I  said,  last  week,  that 
a  slogan  really  only  acquired  efficiency  after  it  had 
been  used — after  it  had  been  advertised — so,  in 
the  same  way,  a  name  that  is  quite  meaningless  at 
first  may  acquire  a  semblance  of  appropriateness. 
'  Kodak  '  meant  nothing,  '  Vaseline  '  meant  nothing, 
until  advertising  associated  them  in  the  public  mxind 
with  the  products  to  which  they  were  applied. 

The  very  happiest  inventions  in  this  way  have 
been  coined  words  that  do  carry  a  suggestion  of 
meaning,  without  coming  within  the  ordinance  against 
descriptiveness.  It  is  often  said  of  words  like 
*  Tabloid '  and  '  Pianola  '  that  there  is  a  fortune  in 
them.  There  is  no  fortune  in  them  until  they  have 
been  advertised,  though.  '  Tabloid,'  formed  on  the 
analogy  of  diminutives  ending  in  *  oid,'  is,  of  course, 
a  mere  variation  of  '  tablet.'  It  sails  very  near  the 
wind,  but  it  is  entirely  lawful. 

One  trouble  that  arises  in  connection  with  such 


TRADE-MARKS  AND  RETAIL  ADVERTISING         155 

words  is  this,  that  when  they  have  been  long  adver- 
tised, the  public  forgets  that  they  are  trade-marks. 
They  are  then  used  generically  and  people  think 
that  any  kind  of  compressed  drug  is  a  tabloid,  any 
player-piano  a  pianola.  This  leads  to  difficulties  of 
several  kinds.  There  is  a  risk  that  a  trade-mark 
might  be  invalidated  if  the  owner  allowed  the  name 
to  be  used  as  a  general  term. 

This  is  no  imaginary  danger.     The  law  is  sedulous 
in  protecting  the  public  against  abuse  of  its  statutes. 
If  I   neglect   to  safeguard   my  trade-mark  against 
abuse,  I  thereby  create  a  general  sense  of  security 
in  the  use  of  the  name.     Although  it  is  incumbent 
upon   people,  theoretically,  to   be  careful  lest  they 
infringe  a  trade-mark,  the  owner  must  not  feel  too 
secure  if  he  allows  his  mark  to  be  infringed  with 
impunity  by  a  number  of  persons,  and  then  suddenly 
wakes  up  and  proceeds  against  one  individual.     That 
one  might  say  that  he  had  been  led  to  spend  money 
on  making  up  goods  with  the  mark,  believing  it  to 
be  common  property,  and  that  he  was  aggrieved  by 
being  now  interfered  with.     Suppose,  for  example, 
that  the  Chesebrough  Manufacturing  Company,  who 
own  the  trade-mark  ^  Vaseline,'  had  allowed  other 
petroleum  jellies   to   be    sold   by  this  name,  taking 
no  steps  to  prevent  this  during  a  number  of  years. 
It  might  be  very  hard  upon  one  chemist,  who  had 
bought  a  stock  of  bottles  with  *  Vaseline  '  cast  in 
the  glass,   and  a  stock  of  labels,   and  a  stock  of 
petroleum  jelly,  to  be  pounced  upon  for  doing  what 
other  people  had  done  with  impunity  for  perhaps  ten 
years.     It  is  impossible  to  say  that  the  Courts  might 
not  hold  that  the  action  of  the  Chesebrough  Company 
contributed  to  the  chemist's  mistake,  if  it  were  shown 


156  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

to  be  an  honest  mistake,  and  that  the  Company  was 
either  estopped  from  taking  measures  to  restrain  the 
chemist,  or  liable  to  compensate  him  for  his  invest- 
ment and  for  the  goodwill  which  he  had  established. 
I  do  not  say  that  this  would  be  the  view  that  the 
Courts  must  take,  but  it  is  a  view  that  they  might 
take.  In  some  countries  such  a  view  has  undoubtedly 
been  taken  by  the  law. 

Not  only,  therefore,  is  it  a  good  rule  that  if  you 
register  a  trade-mark  you  must  stand  behind  it  and 
protect  it  against  infringement,  but  also  it  is  a 
measure  of  commercial  prudence  to  take  care  that 
your  mark  is  known  as  a  mark.  The  words 
'  Registered  Trade-mark ',  or  some  equivalent,  should 
be  printed  in  connection  with  it.  If  you  look  at 
a  bottle  of  tabloids  you  will  see  that  Burroughs 
Wellcome  &  Co.  add  the  words — in  small  type — 
'  Tabloid  Brand.'  That  is  done  to  indicate  that  the 
word  '  Tabloid  '  does  not  merely  denote  the  shape 
of  the  tablets,  but  their  being  manufactured  by  them- 
selves. The  word  '  Pianola '  is  often  used  con- 
versationally to  mean  any  sort  of  player-piano.  If 
printed  in  a  book  or  inserted  in  a  dictionary  in  that 
use,  it  would  be  prudent  for  the  Aeolian  Hall  people 
to  protest  against  this.  In  point  of  fact,  I  believe 
the  word  '  Kodak  '  was  inserted  in  a  dictionary  and 
defined  as  a  hand  camera,  and  that  Kodak  Limited 
compelled  the  publisher  of  the  dictionary  to  add 
words  to  the  effect  that  '  Kodak '  meant  a  hand 
camera  manufactured  by  themselves  :  and  I  know 
that  if  you  print  the  word  '  Kodak  '  with  a  small 
'  k  '  in  a  book  or  newspaper,  Kodak  Limited  will 
write  to  you  and  point  out  that  this  word  is  not  a 
generic  term,  but  private  property.     This  is  no  doubt 


TRADE-MARKS  AND  RETAIL  ADVERTISING         157 

done  as  a  precautionary  measure,  so  that  the  name 
may  not  creep  into  common  use. 

I  have  dwelt  upon  this  part  of  the  subject  because 
the  indefinite  danger  which  I  have  described  became, 
for  a  time,  a  definite  one  last  year.  The  Board  of 
Trade  introduced  into  Parliament  a  Bill  which 
would  have  actually  invalidated  a  name  trade-mark 
which  came  into  general  use,  being  wrongly  used 
as  a  descriptive  word  in  the  way  that  '  Vaseline,' 
*  Pianola,'  and  *  Kodak  ' — to  name  no  others — are 
misused.  This  iniquitous  measure  proposed  to 
penalise  the  efficient  advertiser,  who  had  made  his 
name  a  household  word,  by  enacting  that  anyone 
might  use  the  same  word,  so  long  as  he  did  not  hold 
out  the  goods  as  the  product  of  the  advertiser.  I  do 
not  know  what  the  effect  of  this  might  have  been 
on  our  commercial  situation  in  the  United  States, 
and  elsewhere.  Hundreds  of  American  trade-marks 
in  this  country  would  have  been  endangered,  and 
reprisals  would  have  been  taken,  perhaps  to  the 
great  injury  of  British  exporters.  However,  it  is 
fortunate  that  a  number  of  English  advertising  men 
raised  a  protest — I  was  one  of  them — and  the  Bill 
has  been  dropped. 

The  real  object  of  it,  I  suspect,  is  one  which  could 
have  been  accomplished  by  other  means.  Certain 
German  chemical  manufacturers  have  sent  to  this 
country  patented  coal-tar  derivatives  with  names 
that  are  dreadful  jaw-breakers  in  the  correct  chemical 
nomenclature,  which  is  basically  common  to  all 
languages.  By  giving  these  products  popular  names, 
they  did  no  more  than  was  commercially  necessary. 
You  could  hardly  expect  a  man  with  a  cold  to  ask 
the  chemist  for  ten  grains  of  phenyldimethylpyralon  : 


158  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

so  this  compound  was  renamed  antipyrin.  Even 
doctors  call  it  that.  If  you  asked  for  aspirin  and 
the  chemist  offered  you  acetylsalicylic  acid,  you 
might  easily  think  he  was  trying  to  sell  you  a  sub- 
stitute. As  fancy  names  for  coal-tar  derivatives  had 
often  been  registered,  the  Board  of  Trade  clumsily 
thought  to  get  rid  of  the  monopoly  in  the  drug  itself 
which  had  been  thus  cunningly  created,  by  in- 
validating the  trade-mark  rights  in  the  name — the 
only  name  by  which  the  drug  was  generally  known. 
But  there  was  no  occasion  for  this  where  the 
names  were  registered  ;  and  where  they  were  not 
registered,  there  was  no  need  of  an  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment. I  shall  presently  explain  to  you  that  if  the 
only  name  of  a  new  patented  invention  is  registered 
as  a  trade-mark,  the  trade-mark  dies  with  the 
patent. 

Many  trade-marks  perish  through  inherent 
defects.  The  framer  of  them  does  not  take  good 
advice,  and  by  some  act  of  his  own  enables  other 
people  to  destroy  his  rights.  He  perhaps  adopts  a 
name  that  is  so  nearly  descriptive  that  the  ordinary 
descriptive  name  sounds  exactly  like  it.  He  cannot 
be  surprised  if  the  trade-mark  name  always  sounds 
like  the  name  that  is  common  to  all,  when  heard 
by  a  shopkeeper.  He  may  go  to  work,  as  a  man 
had  done  who  came  to  see  me  a  week  ago,  and  spend 
money  to  advertise  a  name,  and  then,  and  only  then, 
think  of  registering  it.  As  soon  as  he  does  this, 
he  finds  that  the  name  is  registered  already  by 
some  one  else,  whose  attention  is  called  to  the  quite 
innocent  infringement  by  the  attempt  to  register. 
Or  he  may  do  a  number  of  things  which  deprive  him 
of  the  protection  which  he  might  have  obtained. 


TRADE-MARKS  AND  RETAIL  ADVERTISING        159 

The  kind  of  mark  that  is  safest  from  mishap  is 
a  proper  name  in  the  possessive  case — Pears'  soap, 
Scott's  emulsion,  Day  &  Martin's  blacking,  Brown 
&  Poison's  corn-flour.  The  only  danger  here  is 
through  the  misplaced  energy  of  the  advertiser  who 
introduces  some  descriptive  words  between  the 
possessive  and  the  generic  word.  Even  if  it  is  there 
in  the  trade-mark,  where  it  may  sometimes  be  harm- 
less enough,  it  must  be  kept  out  of  the  advertisements. 
If  Messrs.  Scott  &  Bowne  had  advertised  Scott's  cod- 
liver  oil  emulsion,  people  would  have  shortened 
it,  asking  for  *  Cod  Liver  Oil  Emulsion,'  and  wily 
retailers  would  have  providently  had  it  ready  for 
them,  labelled  to  look  as  much  like  Scott's  as  they 
dared.  Businesses  have  been  ruined  through  this 
mistake.  Some  years  ago  there  was  some  large 
advertising  of  Frazer's  sulphur  tablets,  with  an 
offer  of  free  samples.  The  advertising  built  up  a 
big  business.  But  it  was  destroyed  by  substitution. 
Chemists,  and  even  confectioners,  sold  sulphur 
tablets  that  were  not  Frazer's  ;  and  Frazer  &  Co. 
had  no  redress.  The  little  liver  pills  without  a 
name  which  you  will  find  in  almost  every  chemist's 
shop,  would  never  have  been  sold  probably,  and 
certainly  never  have  been  thus  universally  called 
'  little  liver  pills,'  if  Carter's  Little  Liver  Pills  had 
not  been  extensively  advertised. 

The  substitution  evil,  as  it  is  called — where  a 
customer  who  comes  to  a  tradesman's  counter  for 
an  advertised  and  trade-marked  article  is  induced  to 
buy  something  else — is  the  enemy  of  Advertising. 
It  robs  the  advertiser  of  the  customer  that  he  has 
created.  But  this  is  of  less  economic  importance 
than  the  fact  that  it  simultaneously  robs  the  customer 


i6o  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

of  the  protection  which  he  obtains  by  buying  a  known, 
standardised  article,  with  a  name  behind  it. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  problems  which  an 
advertising  man  in  certain  lines  of  business  has  to 
face  is  that  of  checkmating  the  substitutor.  When 
he  succeeds  in  doing  so,  he  performs  an  economic 
service  to  the  public,  and  a  service  of  positively 
vital  importance  to  his  firm.  Within  the  limit  of 
legality  the  retailer  who  strives  to  filch  the  results 
of  advertising  for  which  he  has  not  paid  will  try  to 
copy  the  appearance  of  the  goods  as  packed  by  the 
advertiser.  A  great  deal  of  passive  substitution 
is  practised,  by  having  certain  goods,  imitatively 
named  and  imitatively  packaged,  well  in  view  on 
the  counter  and  in  the  window,  while  the  advertised 
goods  are  kept  out  of  sight.  The  incautious  purchaser 
will  often  buy  what  he  sees,  instead  of  buying  what 
he  really  wants.  This  is  what  I  have  called  passive 
substitution.  The  retailer  is  fully  within  his  rights. 
He  keeps  a  shop.  He  may  sell  whatever  he  likes. 
You  and  I  may  think  it  a  rather  shabby  business, 
but  it  is  not  an  illegal  business.  How  is  the 
advertising-man  to  combat  it  ? 

I  shall  try  to  answer  this  question  as  fully  as  I 
can  because  if  an  advertiser  is  not  protected  against 
substitution  he  may  lose  his  business  altogether. 
One  way  to  throw  difficulties  in  the  way  of  it  is  to 
take  great  pains  that  the  package  is  so  character- 
istic, so  individual,  that  it  cannot  be  imitated  with 
any  show  of  innocence.  The  dishonourable  retailer 
will  some  day  commit  himself — sometimes  he  may 
be  quietly  led  into  a  trap  so  that  he  does  commit 
himself — and  then,  when  he  is  brought  to  court, 
his  hands  are  not  clean.    He  has  implicitly  confessed 


TRADE-MARKS  AND  RETAIL  ADVERTISING         i6i 

his  dishonest  intent  by  showing  that  he  has  copied 
your  distinctive  style  of  package  ;  and  the  law  is 
not  tender  to  substitutors  who  thus  commit  them- 
selves. He  is,  anywa)^,  on  the  horns  of  a  dilemma. 
If  he  does  not  copy  your  label,  he  cannot  so 
effectively  practise  this  game  of  passive  sub- 
stitution. If  he  does,  any  one  of  his  assistants  is 
likely  to  get  him  into  trouble.  The  purchaser,  if 
he  asks  for  the  real  article  by  name,  must  have  that 
article  or  be  talked  out  of  it.  It  is  settled  law,  by 
a  case  many  years  ago  tried  in  the  Court  of  Chancery 
before  Mr.  Justice  Chitty,  in  which  I  think  I  appeared 
as  a  witness,  that  if  a  customer  asks  for  an  advertised 
article  and  is  given  a  substitute  without  being  told 
of  it,  the  shopkeeper  can  be  successfully  sued  by  the 
advertiser  or  the  customer. 

An  advertising  man,  especially  if  he  is  selling 
toilet  articles  or  proprietary  goods  of  any  kind  retailed 
through  chemists,  is  liable  to  have  to  combat,  as 
well  as  the  first  or  passive  kind  of  substitution  which 
I  have  described,  the  second  or  active  form.  Here, 
the  retailer  does  not  stop  with  having  the  substitute 
well  displayed  and  the  real  goods  out  of  sight.  He 
goes  further,  and  when  he  is  asked  for  an  advertised 
article,  he  replies,  *  I  have  something  of  my  own — 
just  as  good.'  He  uses  his  personal  acquaintance 
and  influence  with  the  customer  to  sell  the  substitute, 
or  he  offers  it  for  less  money,  or  he  does  both. 

The  remedy  for  this,  and  the  remedy  for  the 
other  kind  of  substitution  too,  is  to  make  your 
advertisements  so  strong  that  the  customer  is  deter- 
mined to  have  the  advertised  article,  and  not  to  be 
put  off  with  anything  else.  If  you  have  efficiently 
sold  your  goods  in  the  advertising,  the  shopkeeper 


i62  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

will  not  be  able  to  unsell  them  at  the  counter.  That 
is  the  cure  for  the  substitution  evil.  Good  adver- 
tising is  the  best  remedy  for  many  other  evils,  but 
it  is  the  only  remedy  for  this. 

Guard  against  the  belief  that  when  you  have  put 
at  the  end  of  an  announcement  '  Avoid  imitations  ' 
you  have  done  all  that  is  needed  to  checkmate 
substitution.  Scores  of  anti-substitution  slogans 
have  been  invented.  Some  of  them  are  very  good. 
A  warning  does  something,  but  it  is  not  a  complete, 
bullet-proof  protection.  Years  ago,  a  sentence  used 
by  the  proprietors  of  Carter's  Little  Liver  Pills  did 
some  good  work.  This  article,  for  a  reason  which 
I  gave  you,  suffers  greatly  from  substitution.  It  is 
very  easy  to  substitute.  I  suppose  Carter's  adver- 
tising sells  three  or  four  tubes  of  imitations  for  every 
one  of  the  genuine — because  the  words  '  Little  Liver 
Pills '  cannot  be  registered :  they  are  descriptive. 
It  would  have  been  better  to  advertise  simply '  Carter's 
Pills,'  just  as  it  would  have  been  better  for  Frazer 
&  Co.  to  advertise  '  Frazer's  Tablets  '  instead  of 
'  Frazer's  Sulphur  Tablets.'  The  slogan  which  did 
something  to  check  the  substitution  of  Carter's 
little  liver  pills  was,  *  But  be  sure  they  are  Carter's.' 
It  caused  people  upon  whom  what  I  called  passive 
substitution  was  practised  to  notice  the  absence  of 
the  name,  and  it  made  the  active  kind  of  substitution 
more  difficult. 

But  when  all  is  said  and  done,  the  only  real 
remedy  for  substitution  is  to  send  your  customer 
to  the  retailer  fully  convinced  that  he  wants  your 
goods  and  no  one  else's.  Distinctiveness  and  facts 
in  your  advertising  are  the  only  thing  that  will  do 
this — especially   facts.     And    that    is   why    I    again 


TRADE-MARKS  AND  RETAIL  ADVERTISING        163 

entreat  of  any  of  you  who  may  be  exercising,  or  may 
intend  to  exercise,  the  profession  of  advertisement- 
writing,  to  study  the  g^ods — study  the  goods — study 
the  goods. 

Of  course,  if  you  have  an  incontrovertible 
monopoly,  an  actual  patent  covering  everything 
that  will  do  what  your  advertised  product  is  able 
to  do,  substitution  will  not  trouble  you.  But  you 
must  beware  of  associating  a  patented  article  with 
the  name  of  it  in  such  a  way  that  when  the  patent 
expires  your  trade-mark  will  be  gone  too.  The 
essence  of  a  patent  is  protection  for  a  limited  time — 
about  fourteen  years — in  consideration  of  your  pub- 
lishing a  specification  that  will  enable  the  public 
at  large  to  use  your  method  after  you  have  made 
your  profit  on  the  initial  monopoly.  Now,  if  you 
give  your  invention  a  new  name,  so  that  it  cannot 
be  identified  by  any  other  name,  you  may  have  to 
give  up  the  name  when  your  patent  expires.  This 
is  a  danger  to  be  guarded  against. 

There  is  an  advertising  device  akin  to  trade- 
marks which  helps  to  give  distinctiveness.  This 
is  the  use  of  what  is  sometimes  called  a  *  mascot.' 
A  mascot  is  a  typical  figure,  introduced  into  adver- 
tisements for  the  purpose  of  being  identified  at 
sight.  By  connecting  each  advertisement  in  a 
series  with  the  rest,  it  also  helps  to  obtain  the  cumu- 
lative effect  inherent  in  continued  advertising,  to 
which  I  referred  last  week.  The  most  prominent 
mascots  just  now  are  '  Mr.  Dunlop  '  and  '  Johnnie 
Walker.'  The  Kodak  girl,  in  her  striped  frock,  and 
my  own  Brown  &  Poison  girl  in  the  check-apron  are 
other  examples,  and  you  will  probably  remember 
'  Sunny  Jim,'  the  mascot  used  for  the  breakfast  food 


i64  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

called  '  Force.'  I  try  to  make  you  remember  '  Sunny 
Jim': 

High  o'er  fence  leaps  Sunny  Jim — 
'  Force '  is  the  food  that  raises  him, 

because  he  illustrates  an  important  principle.  Lord 
Leverhulme — formerly  Sir  William  Lever,  the  leading 
proprietor  of  Sunlight  soap — was  the  first  to  remark 
upon  this  principle  to  me.  Sunny  Jim  has  not  lived. 
Why  did  he  not  live  ?  Because  he  lacked  one 
important  characteristic  in  a  mascot  :  he  didn't 
carry  the  name  of  the  goods  about  with  him. 
*  Johnnie  Walker '  was  the  nickname  of  Walker's 
whisky  before  the  late  Tom  Browne  first  drew  his 
admirable  figure  for  my  friend  Mr.  Paul  E.  Derrick, 
the  advertising  agent  who  originated  this  and  also 
the  most  famous  of  all  mascots — the  Quaker  of 
Quaker  oats.  You  can't  separate  either  of  these 
from  the  goods,  and,  for  a  certain  reason  of  policy, 
the  word  whisky  is  never  used,  never  needs  to  be 
used,  in  the  Johnnie  Walker  advertisements.  The 
Kodak  girl  is  Kodak  all  over,  even  if  she  carries 
no  camera.  But  Sunny  Jim  was  not  named  after 
the  product  which  he  advertised,  and,  as  Lord 
Leverhulme  justly  remarked,  that  is  why  he  had  a 
short  life — though  a  gay  one. 

The  way  to  use  a  mascot  efficiently  is  to  show 
the  figure  in  one  posture  long  enough  to  make  it 
familiar  ;  after  that,  get  a  new  effect  by  showing  it 
in  all  kinds  of  attitudes,  doing  all  kinds  of  things. 
I  have  some  vanity  in  revealing  this  principle, 
because  I  think  I  was  the  first  to  use  the  plan. 

Where  a  package  is  not  in  itself  distinctive,  or 
is  not  attractive,  a  mascot  can  sometimes  be  added. 


TRADE-MARKS  AND  RETAIL  ADVERTISING        165 

without  abandoning  the  established  wrapping.  This 
links  up  the  goods  with  the  advertising.  It  is  often 
advisable  to  show  tl\e  package  in  advertisements, 
for  the  same  reason.  One  rather  ingenious  device, 
by  which  a  mascot  was  added  to  the  goods  without 
disturbing  the  original  label,  was  used  by  Messrs. 
Brown  &  Poison,  for  their  corn-flour  and  Paisley 
flour.  They  adopted  a  mascot — the  Brown  &  Poison 
check-apron  girl,  of  which  I  was  the  inventor. 
They  are  in  the  habit  of  wrapping  each  package  in 
transparent  paper,  to  keep  the  carton  clean.  The 
paper  used  to  be  blank,  I  think.  Anyway  it  had 
very  little  on  it.  When  they  adopted  the  Brown 
&  Poison  girl  mascot,  they  printed  her  on  this  trans- 
parent wrapper  and  thus  unified  the  advertising  and 
the  goods,  without  altering  their  old-established 
yellow  carton. 

One  matter  remains  to  be  discussed,  as  a  feature 
of  practical  Advertising.  It  concerns  trade-marked 
goods  in  particular,  and  therefore  it  is  in  place  here. 
If  you  presently  say  that  it  is  not  in  place  at  all, 
because  it  has  to  do  with  merchandising,  not  with 
Advertising,  you  will  raise  an  important  point, 
which  I  shall  hope  to  develop  a  little  in  my  sixth 
Lecture.  A  modern  advertising-man  does  not 
concern  himself  with  advertisements  alone.  He 
knows,  as  I  said  in  my  second  Lecture,  that  the 
policy  behind  any  advertising  campaign  is  more 
important  than  the  advertisements  themselves.  And 
this  matter  that  I  want  to  discuss  before  I  finish  is 
a  question  of  policy.  It  is  this  question  :  ought  an 
advertiser  to  fix,  by  arrangemicnts  which  cannot  be 
controverted,  the  price  at  which  his  goods  are  sold 
to  the  public  ?     This  problem  is  generally  stated  in 


i66  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

Other  terms,  thus  :    Is  it  the  duty  of  an  advertiser 
to  protect  retailers  against  price-cutting  ? 

There  are  two  aspects  to  this  question — the 
ethical  and  the  practical.  Ethically,  I  know  that  I 
am  on  the  unpopular  side.  I  disagree  with  nearly 
all  the  best  authorities,  most  of  whom  are  very  good 
friends  of  mine.  Nearly  all  advertisers  have  been 
persuaded  that  price-protection  is  right.  I  think 
that  price-protection  is  wrong  and  immoral. 

I  call  their  action  immoral,  because  I  am  always 
on  the  side  of  the  consumer.  It  cannot  be  to  the 
advantage  of  the  consumer  that  he  should  be  made 
to  pay  a  higher  price  for  a  standardised  commodity 
than  would  be  charged  him  if  competition  took  its 
natural  course.  The  price  at  which  a  retailer  can 
afford  to  sell  anything  is  determined  in  great  measure 
by  what  I  called  in  my  first  Lecture  his  overhead 
expenses — the  cost,  per  cent,  of  turnover,  of  keeping 
the  shop  open.  Of  course,  these  overhead  expenses — 
rent,  taxes,  light,  and  other  fixed  annual  charges — 
have  to  be  averaged  over  the  turnover,  before  the 
retailer  knows  what  percentage  of  profit  he  is  making, 
as  I  pointed  out.  An  efficient  retailer  can  work  at 
a  lower  overhead  cost  than  an  inefficient  one,  and 
can  consequently  sell  cheaper,  while  still  making 
profits  at  the  same  rate. 

There  is  no  resisting  the  protected-price  system 
now.  Retailers  have  been  too  strong  for  advertisers 
and  too  strong  for  what  I  consider  the  ethical  and 
the  economic  view.  In  practice,  it  pays  to  fix  the 
retail  price  and  compel  all  retailers  to  conform  to 
it.  If  you  do  not,  their  opposition  will  make  the 
cost  of  advertising,  per  cent  of  sales,  too  high. 
They  will  block  the  sale,  and  although  you  can  beat 


TRADE-MARKS  AND  RETAIL  ADVERTISING        167 

them,  by  spending  enough  money,  the  more  profitable 
course  is  the  immoral  one  of  allowing  shopkeepers 
to  charge  more  than  ^hc  natural,  competitive  price 
of  the  goods  at  retail.  The  protected  price  system 
has  been  forced  upon  advertisers  by  combinations 
of  retailers  in  various  trades.  The  small  retailers 
combined  for  self-protection  against  the  big  retailers 
who  do  business  at  a  low  overhead  cost  and  do  not 
need  so  much  profit  as  the  less  efficient  small  shop- 
keepers. The  effect  of  their  combination  was  to 
force  the  price-fixing  system  on  advertisers.  As 
price-fixing  compels  the  public  to  pay  more  for 
advertised  commodities  than  the  natural,  the  com- 
petitive retail  price,  it  makes  them  dearer  ;  and 
whatever  makes  a  thing  dearer  diminishes  the  sale. 
Now  the  advertiser  does  not  get  any  of  the  plunder 
when  he  stops  competition.  All  the  extra  money 
goes  to  the  retailers.  The  efficient  retailers  who  do 
not  need  the  extra  margin  are  compelled  to  receive 
it  so  that  they  may  not  be  able  to  compete  against 
the  inefficient  retailers  who  do  need  it.  Price-fixing 
is,  in  fact,  a  scheme  to  protect  the  inefficient  retailer 
against  the  efficient  one.  But  the  price-cutter  is  not 
always  a  big  man  :  there  were  and  are  plenty  of 
small  cut-price  shops. 

The  thing  which  marks  the  immorality  of  price- 
hoisting  cartels  is  that  all  their  pressure  is  put  upon 
the  advertiser — a  thing  which  naturally  makes  them 
all  the  more  odious  in  my  eyes.  Nothing  is  ever 
heard  about  protecting  the  profit  on  bulk  goods 
or  unbranded  articles  of  any  kind.  And  yet,  it  is 
these  that  the  shopkeeper  has  to  trouble  about 
selling.  It  is  for  these  that  he  has  to  make  customers. 
The  advertiser   sends   him  customers  ready  made. 


i68  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

But  the  retail  mind  seems  to  have  an  animus  against 
all  Advertising,  except  its  own.  Retailers  do  them- 
selves a  mischief  by  trying  to  stand  against  the 
current  of  demand  for  what  is  advertised.  Advertised 
articles  sell  quickest  and  cost  the  least  to  sell ;  they 
carry  a  bigger  per  annum  profit  than  the  other  things. 
A  retailer  who  would  specialise  in  advertised  articles — 
who  would  show  them,  push  them,  and  do  every- 
thing he  could  to  identify  himself  with  them — 
would,  in  any  trade,  grow  rich.  He  would  be  letting 
himself  float  on  a  stream  of  business  which  other 
people  were  spending  money  to  keep  in  motion.  And 
incidentally  he  would  be  serving  the  public  well, 
by  selling  them  standardised  goods. 

You  cannot,  at  this  period  of  commercial  his- 
tory, resist  the  price-protecting  system.  But  in  your 
policy,  you  should  make  the  best  of  a  bad  job.  You 
should  impress  upon  retailers,  through  your  trade 
advertising,  that  it  pays  them  better  to  sell  your 
advertised  goods,  which  turn  over  quickly,  than 
to  sell  unbranded  wares,  which  stick.  You  should 
do  your  part  in  trying  to  bring  retailers  to  a  better 
frame  of  mind.  Teach  them  to  abandon  the  dis- 
honest pretence  that  they  have  some  special  '  pull ' 
in  buying  unbranded  goods  that  are  better  than 
those  sold  by  their  neighbours.  Teach  them  that 
the  advertiser  is  their  friend,  and  the  friend  of  all 
sound  business.  In  this  way  you  will  help  the 
sales-manager,  whose  business  it  is  to  organise 
distribution  through  the  retailer. 

This  function  of  sales-management  is  generally 
exercised  by  a  separate  person,  though  Advertising 
is  obviously  an  element  of  salesmanship.  The 
purpose  of  Advertising  is  to  make  selling  cheaper. 


TRADE-MARKS  AND  RETAIL  ADVERTISING         169 

The  fact  that  Advertising  does  enable  manufacturers 
to  sell  more  goods  or  sell  at  less  expense  than  they 
would  find  possible  witjiout  it,  requires  no  demonstra- 
tion. If  Advertising  did  not  enable  men  to  sell 
more  largely  and  less  expensively,  men  would  not 
advertise.  The  cost  of  advertisements  is  only  re- 
covered, as  I  showed  in  a  previous  Lecture,  through 
the  economies  which  advertisements  effect  in  selling. 
Logically,  therefore,  the  advertising  manager  should 
be  one  of  the  sales-manager's  staff.  But,  for  reasons 
which  will  appear  in  the  final  Lecture  of  this  series,  it 
is  often  more  convenient  to  put  the  advertising-man 
in  charge  of  selling,  and  treat  sales-management 
as  work  performed  with  the  object  of  making  the 
advertising  department  as  efficient  as  possible. 
In  America,  some  work  normally  performed  by  the 
sales  department  is  often  done  by  advertising  agents, 
and  the  late  S.  H.  Benson  introduced  a  similar 
plan  into  his  advertising  agency.  On  the  whole, 
however,  it  is  probably  more  advantageous  to  have 
such  work  as  investigating  markets,  organising 
trade-distribution,  fitting  up  window-displays,  and 
linking  up  the  work  of  retailers  with  the  advertising, 
by  a  staff  directly  in  the  advertiser's  employment. 
One  or  two  special  agencies,  or  departments  of  general 
advertising  agencies,  of  which  that  organised  by 
Messrs.  Saward,  Baker  &  Co.  before  the  War  is  an 
example,  have  worked  a  scheme  of  house-to-house 
sampling,  with  demonstrations.  This  is  a  successful 
way  of  introducing  new  household  commodities. 
In  America  the  Knox  Gelatine  Company  send  out 
a  staff  of  young  women  who  call  upon  housewives, 
offering  to  prepare  a  '  dessert ' — American  for 
*  sweet ' — for  the  day's  lunch  or  dinner.     They  make 


170  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

from  the  gelatine  and  other  ingredients  carried  with 
them  a  fruit  jelly  or  other  confection  and  present 
it  to  the  family,  free  of  charge.  This,  naturally, 
leads  to  orders,  which  are  turned  over  to  the  nearest 
grocer.  '  Ivelcon '  beef-tea  cubes  were  somewhat 
similarly  introduced  in  this  country  by  house-to- 
house  sampling.  The  canvasser  asked  for  hot  water 
and  prepared  a  cup  of  beef-tea.  Samples  of  Colleen 
soap  were  delivered  by  the  Saward-Baker  agency 
when  this  article  was  comparatively  new. 

Such  work  as  this  can  be  conveniently  delegated 
to  an  agency ;  but  the  actual  handling  of  retailers, 
and  commercial  travellers'  work  generally  is,  in  my 
opinion,  best  kept  under  direct  control. 

I  said  a  few  moments  ago  that  the  owner  of  a 
retail  shop  had,  in  it,  a  kind  of  trade-mark.  Like 
every  other  trade-mark  in  the  world,  this  property 
of  the  retailer  is  valuable  in  proportion  to  the  advertis- 
ing which  it  receives.  Although  the  subject  is  not 
really  in  place  in  this  lecture,  perhaps  I  may  make 
what  I  have  just  said  an  excuse  for  talking  about 
practical  retail  advertising  now,  as  there  is  some 
time  left  this  evening,  and  it  does  not  fit  into  any 
of  the  other  lectures.  Moveover,  I  have  been  saying 
hard  things  about  shopkeepers  to-night.  Perhaps 
I  can  make  friends  of  them  again  by  taking  their 
side  now. 

You  will  remember  my  saying,  a  few  moments 
ago,  that  a  shopkeeper  who  would  make  advertised 
goods  prominent,  and  avail  himself  of  the  impetus 
put  behind  them  by  the  manufacturer,  would  grow 
rich.  And  when  I  was  discussing  the  proportion 
of  selling-expense  to  turnover,  I  uttered  the  obvious 
truth  that  the  faster  anything  turns  over  the  less 


TRADE-MARKS  AND  RETAIL  ADVERTISING        171 

it  costs  the  retailer,  in  overhead  expense,  to  sell. 
Retailers  make  a  mistake  by  not  realising  this. 
They  think  that  because  some  unbranded  goods 
carry  a  large  profit  they  can  prosper  by  selling  these 
as  often  as  possible,  and  the  branded  articles  of  the 
advertiser  as  seldom  as  possible. 

There  is  a  fundamental  error  in  this.  The  only 
unbranded  articles  which  normally  carry  a  high  profit 
are  precisely  those  that  sell  slowly.  Competition 
is  not  keen  on  such  goods.  The  everyday  stuff, 
like  pepper  and  salt,  cheese,  sugar,  matches,  reels 
of  cotton,  packets  of  needles,  calico,  and  so  forth 
have  to  be  sold  at  a  small  margin,  because  every  shop 
has  them.  On  the  other  hand,  the  minimum  whole- 
sale discount  on  silver  and  plated  goods  is  50  per 
cent.  A  jeweller  generally  gets  more  than  this  on 
articles  of  gold  and  jewellery ;  china  and  glass 
carry  a  profit  said  to  be  arrived  at  by  at  least 
doubling  the  wholesale  price  and  adding  20  per  cent. 
It  is  only  the  goods  like  these — goods  that  are  com- 
paratively seldom  wanted — that  carry  more  profit 
than  advertised  specialties.  And  it  is  right  that  they 
should  do  so.  They  cost  a  great  deal  in  overhead 
expense.  Some  advertised  articles  earn  great  profits 
for  manufacturers.  Toilet  preparations  and  patent 
medicines  are  an  artificial  want,  and  it  is  quite  true 
that  they  carry  a  big  profit.  But  what  is  the  chemist's 
profit  on  a  doctor's  prescription  ? 

What  are  the  principles  of  retail  advertising  ? 
They  are  in  many  ways  abnormal.  They  appear  to 
contradict  almost  every  principle  of  advertisement- 
writing  as  it  is  practised  by  manufacturers.  The 
manufacturer  tries  to  have  his  advertising  as  simple 
as  possible — to  talk  as  much  as  he  can  about  quality, 


172  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

and  as  little  as  he  may  about  price.  He  advertises 
one  thing  at  a  time  and  avoids  offering  a  variety. 
He  uses  large  type  and  large  illustrations.  A  retailer 
must  do  the  very  reverse  of  this.  He  must,  as  a 
general  rule,  put  as  many  different  articles  into  his 
announcement  as  he  can.  He  obtains  most  attention 
when  he  uses  masses  of  small  type.  It  appears 
to  be  profitable  to  use  a  lot  of  little  illustrations, 
and  there  must  be  prices.  Of  course,  there  are 
exceptions.  Sometimes  a  retailer,  oftenest  in  a 
special,  rather  than  a  mixed  trade,  only  requires 
to  advertise  one  thing — a  piano,  a  set  of  furs,  a 
watch,  a  service  of  china.  He  takes  one  article 
and  advertises  it  as  typical ;  and  this  helps  to  sell 
the  rest  of  his  stock.  But  most  drapers,  grocers, 
and  the  kind  of  shops  that  we  have  learned  to  call 
departmental  stores,  most  commonly  put  a  number 
of  different  things,  and  a  number  of  prices,  into 
each  announcement.  The  more  they  can  crowd  in, 
the  happier  they  feel.  Commonly,  there  is  little 
about  the  shop,  beyond  the  name,  and  much  about 
the  merchandise.  But  never  forget  that  the  most 
direct  function  of  retail  advertising  is  not  to  sell 
goods.  It  is  to  get  the  people  into  the  shop.  If 
the  shop  is  not  utterly  without  competent  manage- 
ment, they  will  buy  when  they  go  there. 

If  retail  advertising  is  well  planned,  it  takes  on 
something  of  the  character  of  news.  A  retailer — 
I  talk,  for  the  moment,  of  provincial  retailers  mainly, 
and  especially  those  in  rather  small  towns — only  uses 
one,  two,  or  at  the  most  three  newspapers,  and  will 
probably  use  the  evening  papers,  for  a  reason  which 
I  shall  explain  next  week.  If  he  can  afford  it,  he 
will  do  well  to  have  his  announcement  in  the  paper 


TRADE-MARKS  AND  RETAIL  ADVERTISING         173 

every  day.  If  he  can  arrange  for  it  to  occupy  always 
the  same  place  every  day — I  mean  on  the  same 
page  and  in  the  same  position — he  will  more  readily 
lead  people  to  look  forMt.  This  is  what  department 
store  Advertising  should  aim  at.  By  having  what 
the  people  want,  when  they  want  it,  the  retail  adver- 
tiser will  secure  a  lot  of  trade,  because  he  will  remind 
the  people  of  their  wants  before  their  wants  are 
realised,  before  they  have  had  time  to  go  somewhere 
else.  And  he  will  perform  a  useful  function,  for 
which  people  will  show  their  gratitude.  No  harm  will 
be  done  if  he  can  write  a  good  paragraph  every  day 
to  put  at  the  top,  pointing  out  his  own  usefulness. 

It  is  real  usefulness,  which  I  can  prove  by  some- 
thing which  happened  about  twenty  years  ago  in 
Toronto.  In  that  fine  city  of  Eastern  Canada, 
where  I  have  seen  shops  that  would  be  a  credit  to 
Regent  Street  and  a  surprise  to  Tottenham  Court 
Road,  the  Timothy  Eaton  department  store  was 
once  the  largest  shop  in  the  world.  It  remained  so 
until  about  six  years  ago,  when  Whiteley's  claimed  to 
have  beaten  even  Selfridge's  and  Selfridge's  presently 
beat  Whiteley's  again,  as  I  believe.  I  am  not  quite 
certain.     I  have  not  measured. 

Timothy  Eaton  &  Co.'s  advertisement  in  the 
Toronto  Globe  was  the  domestic  bible  of  Toronto 
housewives.  I  think  the  Globe  and  an  evening 
paper  had  it,  and  the  daily  offerings  were  divided 
between  the  two,  some  in  the  morning,  some  at 
night.  Presently  a  new  paper  sprang  up.  I  think 
it  was  called  the  Star,  but  all  this  is  rather  long  ago 
to  remember,  and  I  am  speaking  from  memory. 
This  paper  made  Mr.  Eaton  a  very  special  offer. 
It  offered  space  at  a  very  low  price  to  the  Timothy 


174  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

Eaton  store,  if  the  store  could  publish  all  its  offerings 
in  the  Star.  This  offer  was  accepted.  The  Star 
had  been  struggling  along  under  difficulties  until 
then.  But  the  Timothy  Eaton  advertisements  were 
the  making  of  it.  The  paper  was  actually  bought 
for  this  advertisement. 

The  most  difficult  problem  of  a  departmental 
store  in  a  large  city  like  London  or  Manchester  or 
Glasgow  is  to  obtain  full  value  for  its  advertising 
space.  Mr.  Selfridge  cannot  get  along  without 
using  the  London  dailies.  Lewis's  in  Liverpool ; 
Jenner's,  Allan's,  and  Maule's,  or  Patrick  Thomson's 
in  Edinburgh  ;  Anderson's  or  Rowan's  in  Glasgow, 
have  to  use  the  big  dailies  of  those  cities — 
the  Liverpool  Courier,  Liverpool  Echo,  Scotsman, 
Edinburgh  Evening  News,  Edinburgh  Dispatch, 
Glasgow  Herald,  Citizen,  and  Evening  News.  All 
these  papers  circulate  in  a  considerably  greater 
area  than  that  occupied  by  the  population  which 
can  go  to  the  shops.  The  outside  circulation  has  to 
be  paid  for.  The  price  which  a  newspaper  can  get 
for  its  space  is  determined,  as  we  shall  see  next  week, 
very  largely  by  its  circulation.  The  department 
stores  do  not  want  to  pay  for  waste  circulation. 
The  only  way  to  prevent  its  being  wasted  is  by 
creating  a  postal  trade,  which  America  has  taught 
us  to  call  mail-order  business.  They  word  their 
advertisements  so  that  it  is  easy  to  order  goods  by 
letter.  They  supplement  their  Press-advertising 
by  posting  catalogues  and  circulars  far  afield,  and 
they  take  great  pains  to  give  satisfaction  to  postal 
customers. 

That  great  Toronto  store  of  which  I  spoke  just 
now  goes  even  further.     It  has  a  mail-order  depart- 


TRADE-MARKS  AND  RETAIL  ADVERTISING         175 

ment  which  is  not  only  quite  dissevered  from  the 
store  itself,  but  regards  itself  as  the  natural  enemy 
of  the  store.  Of  course  the  Timothy  Eaton  advertise- 
ments fetch  business  to*  the  mail-order  department. 
But  this  department,  in  its  postal  trading  and 
correspondence,  takes  up  a  quite  independent 
attitude.  It  cultivates  the  most  personal  relations 
with  its  customers,  so  that  a  woman  in  British 
Columbia,  Saskatchewan,  or  Quebec,  hundreds  of 
miles  away,  will  write  and  trust  the  department 
to  buy  her  a  hat  or  a  dress,  a  kitchen  stove  or  a 
carpet,  and  with  confidence  expect  the  department 
to  remember  her  tastes.  What  is  more,  the  depart- 
ment does  remember  them.  Everything  that  she 
has  ever  bought  is  on  record,  in  the  minutest  detail, 
and  the  staff  is  so  clever  and  so  tactful  that  it  earns 
and  deserves  this  remarkable  confidence.  The  Mail- 
order department  ransacks  the  store  for  what  its 
customers  want,  taking  pains  to  find  them  good 
value.  It  will  even  hold  up  for  a  few  days  an  order 
for  goods  that  are  near  the  end  of  their  season, 
waiting  for  them  to  go  on  the  bargain  counter.  The 
department  does  not  behave  like  a  branch  of  the 
Timothy  Eaton  Company  ;  it  behaves  like  a  customer 
of  the  Timothy  Eaton  Company. 

I  do  not  know  any  English  department  stores 
that  go  so  far  as  this  ;  but  the  best  of  them  do 
cultivate  the  good  opinion  and  confidence  of  distant 
customers  by  careful  service  and  integrity,  realising 
that  it  is  both  harder  and  more  important  to  cultivate 
a  distant  client  than  one  who  meets  the  staff  face  to 
face.  It  is  possible  to  carry  this  kind  of  thing  too 
far.  You  do  not  want  to  make  it  more  desirable  to 
order   by  post   than   come   to   the  shop.     A  postal 


176  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

customer  buys  what  he  remembers  that  he  wants. 
A  customer  in  the  shop  may  and  will  see  other  things 
and  buy  them.  I  repeat — retail  advertising  must 
first  and  foremost  bring  the  people  into  the  shop. 

Retailers  in  special  lines  of  business  have  a 
simpler  problem  than  mixed  retailers,  department 
stores,  drapers,  grocers,  and  so  on,  if  they  handle 
goods  where  the  average  purchase  represents  a  con- 
siderable sum.  Their  customers  vary  instead  of 
coming  back  day  after  day  for  the  same  things. 
A  furniture  dealer,  a  jeweller,  anyone  who  sells 
goods  that  are  not  consumed,  but  kept,  cannot 
make  his  advertisements  news,  though  I  remember 
an  ironmonger  who  managed  to  do  so.  They  are 
only  news  when  a  person  is  contemplating  purchase. 
But  the  fact  that  these  announcements  have  been 
in  the  paper  all  the  year  round — not  perhaps  daily, 
but  pretty  often — causes  them  to  be  read  when  they 
are  news.  And  in  proportion  as  they  give  the 
prospective  purchaser  the  right  impression  or  not, 
they  will  influence  his  choice.  The  most  important 
problem  for  a  retailer  in  this  class  is  to  suit  his 
announcements  to  the  taste  of  his  class  of  customers. 
Some  of  the  best  copy  in  this  kind  of  advertising 
is  (as  usual)  copy  that  tells  people  facts  about  the 
goods.  Such  advertising  indicates  special  knowledge, 
and  operates  to  bring  business  to  the  special  dealer 
instead  of  to  the  department  store.  The  retailer 
must  not  expect  to  be  able  to  write  these  advertise- 
ments by  the  light  of  nature.  It  is  no  more  likely 
that  a  furrier  or  a  watchmaker  should  be  able  to 
write  advertisements  without  learning  that  difficult 
art,  than  that  an  advertisement-writer  should  make 
watches  or  know  how  to  select  and  make  up  furs 


TRADE-MARKS  AND  RETAIL  ADVERTISING         177 

without  serving  an  apprenticeship  to  the  business. 
By  calling  in  professional  assistance — consulting  the 
consultant — the  retail  advertiser  will  save  much  more 
than  this  will  cost  him. 

As  I  have  already  indicated,  the  special  retailer 
should  not  usually  advertise  a  variety  of  goods. 
He  should  advertise  one  thing  at  a  time.  If  he  can 
illustrate  novelties — as,  for  instance,  if  he  specialises 
in  ladies'  hats — he  can  obtain  a  reputation  for 
being  first  in  the  field,  by  persistently  informing  the 
public  that  it  is  his  habit  to  be  so.  There  is  always 
some  special  slant  which  he  can  give  to  his  advertising 
if  he  goes  the  right  way  to  work.  A  very  little 
professional  assistance — I  mean  assistance  from  a 
professional  advertising  man,  a  consultant — will 
enable  him  to  do  this.  I  remember  a  shirt  and  collar 
man  in  a  provincial  town  who,  by  a  rather  subtle 
advertising  scheme,  became  the  recognised  local 
authority  on  men's  dress.  Men  used  to  go  to  him 
to  find  out  how  they  ought  to  get  themselves  up 
when  they  were  being  married  or  acting  as  best 
man,  and  so  forth. 

The  other  side  of  the  question — the  retailer's 
buying  side  instead  of  his  selling  side — involves  all 
the  complex  problems  of  merchandising.  For  an 
advertiser  of  goods  to  the  trade — whether  he  adver- 
tises to  the  public  as  well  or  not — has  to  influence 
a  very  sensitive,  very  irritable  public.  I  would 
rather  face  a  good  many  tasks  than  that  of  selling 
goods  to  shopkeepers  without  advertising  them  to 
the  consumer. 

The  medium  by  which  to  reach  the  shopkeeper 
is,  of  course,  the  trade  paper — the  Drapers^  Record, 
greatest  of  all  trade  papers,  the  Chemist  and  Druggist, 


178  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

the  Ironmonger,  the  Grocer,  Men's  Wear,  the  Oil 
Trades  Journal,  Shoe  and  Leather  Record,  and  what 
not.  Their  name  is  legion,  for  they  be  many  that 
are  in  the  land.  Most  trade-paper  advertising  is 
pretty  bad.  I  think  the  reason  for  this  is  chiefly  that 
the  advertisers  do  not  really  believe  in  advertising, 
and  they  are  not,  for  the  most  part,  advertisers  in 
the  ordinary  sense.  When  they  are,  they  sometimes — 
not  always — use  the  trade  press  competently. 
Burroughs  Wellcome  &  Co.'s  drug-advertising  in 
the  Chemist  and  Druggist,  for  instance,  is  excellent. 
So  is  Brooke  Bond  &  Co.'s  tea  advertising  in  the 
Grocer, 

But  the  commonest  defect  in  trade-paper  adver- 
tising is  not  a  copy  defect  :  it  is  a  defect  of  policy. 
The  best  way  to  use  trade  papers  is  not  to  advertise 
your  goods  to  the  retailer,  and  assuredly  not  to  print 
in  them  the  same  advertisements  which  you  use  in  the 
general  Press.  Perhaps  the  best  way  of  all  is  to  help 
him  to  keep  shop — using  the  sort  of  advertising  which 
I  have  elsewhere  called  '  teaching  the  grocer  to  groce.' 
As  I  said  in  my  second  Lecture,  the  real  way  to  sell 
goods  to  the  retailer  is  to  help  the  retailer  in  selling 
them  to  the  public.  It  is  not  enough  to  get  your 
goods  upon  his  shelves.  You  must  move  them  off 
his  shelves  again,  and  you  can  do  this  either  by 
advertising  them  to  the  public  or  by  improving 
the  retailer's  standard  of  salesmanship.  I  remember 
a  very  successful  series  of  advertisements  in  a  trade 
paper  by  a  wholesale  dealer  in  goods  not  advertised 
to  the  public,  but  sold  in  shops.  These  advertise- 
ments were  entirely  devoted  to  shopkeeping  :  beyond 
the  firm's  signature  at  the  end  they  said  very  little 
about  its  goods  :    some  of  them  did  not  name  the 


TRADE-MARKS  AND  RETAIL  ADVERTISING        179 

goods  at  all.  They  sold  the  goods,  though.  But  I 
have  led  you  rather  far  from  the  ostensible  title  of 
to-night's  lecture.  I  «shall  next  week  ask  you  to 
consider  with  me  the  three  principal  modes  of  adver- 
tising— newspaper  advertising,  posters,  and  the 
use  of  commercial  printed  matter. 


LECTURE  V 

The  Three   Main   Modes   of  Advertisement 

Advertising  not  confined  to  newspapers — The  Press,  the  Poster,  and 
Printed -matter — Their  ancillary  modes — Difference  between 
Advertising  and  PubUcity — The  Press  the  supreme  medium  for 
Advertising  ;  the  Poster  the  supreme  medium  of  PubUcity — Where 
Press  Advertising  is  the  most  efficient  and  economical  mode — 
Selling  goods  of  everyday  consumption — Selling  technical  products 
— The  choice  of  a  medium — Difficulty  of  selecting  individual 
papers — The  Press  classified  for  advertising  purposes — The  medium 
for  products  and  utilities  of  constant  use — Classified  Advertising 
as  a  test  of  circulation — Relative  efficiency  of  morning  and  evening 
papers — Where  the  evening  paper  is  supreme — Advertising  for 
direct  repUes — Sunday  and  weekly  newspapers — Their  special 
use — Magazine  advertisements — Foreign  inquiries  overvalued 
— Influence  of  newspapers  on  advertisements  and  of  advertise- 
ments on  newspapers — The  evil  of  undisclosed  circulation — Where 
the  poster  is  the  best  advertisement — Billposting  an  economical 
mode  of  advertising — Posters  as  a  means  of  securing  retail  dis- 
tribution— Posters  free  from  waste  circulation — Circulars  and 
pamphlets — Their  advantages  and  disadvantages  for  advertising 
— Circulars  by  letter-post  and  book-post — Form-letters — 
Mechanical  devices — The  writing  of  form-letters — The  two  im- 
portant parts — The  pronoun  '  you  ' — Postscripts — Form -letters 
in  mail-order  advertising. 

HAVING   now   considered   in   turn   the   Why, 
the  How,  and  the  What  of  Advertising — why 
we  should  advertise,  how  we  should  frame  our 
announcements,  and   what    merchandise   should    be 
thus  announced — ^we  come  to  the  important  problem 
of  Where  to  advertise. 

Advertising  does  not  begin  and  end  with  news- 
paper announcements,  but  comprises  every  method 
by  which  attention  can  be  obtained.  Through  the 
great  extension  of  modern  salesmanship,  the  number 
of  devices  for  attracting  public  attention  is  so  mul- 
tiplied that  there  will  only  be  time  to  deal  with  the 
three  main  modes.  These  are,  in  the  order  of  their 
importance,  the  Press,  the  poster,  and  printed  matter 

i8o 


THREE  MAIN  MODES  OF  ADVERTISEMENT         i8i 

independently  delivered.     Ancillary  to  these  principal 
modes  and  too  varied  to  be  adequately  discussed 
to-night,  are  such  minor  devices  as  sampling  schemes  ; 
show-cards  and  window-dressings  ;  electric  and  other 
permanent  outdoor  signs  ;    conveyance-advertising, 
which  includes  everything  displayed    in   connection 
with  railways,  tram-cars,  and  omnibuses  ;  the  large 
class    of    objects    described    as    '  novelties  ' — paper- 
weights,  match    cases,    and     a     thousand     similar 
objects   given   away   to   carry   advertisements — and 
finally  the  special  class  of  circulars  known  as  form- 
letters.     The  last  are  so  greatly  a  subject  of  inquiry 
by  students  of  Advertising  that  I  must,  by  exception, 
find  time  to  say  something  about  them  before  I  finish. 
What  I  classify  as  secondary  modes  of  advertise- 
ment are  so  described  because  it  is  hardly  possible 
that  any  one  of  them  could  be  made  to  sustain  the 
sale  of  an  advertised  product  by  itself.     They  supple- 
ment the  three  main  modes  and  they  contribute  to 
what    is    called    cumulative    effect    in    Advertising. 
When  a  name  turns  up  in  so  many  places   that  you 
cannot   help   becoming   familiar   with   it,   the  effect 
of   more   reasoned   advertisement  in   newspapers   or 
by  circulars  is  reinforced.     Every  advertisement,  of 
whatever  wares,  gains  something  from  the  accumu- 
lated influence  of  other  advertising  that  has  appeared 
before.     This  is  a  very  complicated  subject,  which 
could  only  be  discussed  in  a  more  advanced  course, 
dealing  on  a  large  scale  with  advertising  policy  and 
direction. 

Work  done  for  the  sake  of  cumulative  effect 
has  the  nature  of  Publicity  as  distinguished  from 
Advertising  proper.  '  Advertising,'  in  the  strict 
and  limited  sense,   means  publishing  facts  for  the 


i82  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

purpose  of  influencing  the  public  mind.  *  Publicity/ 
within  the  same  limitation,  means  merely  announcing 
something  for  the  purpose  of  influencing  the  public 
memory.  If  I  wrote  a  newspaper  advertisement  or  a 
pamphlet  describing  the  distinctive  characteristics 
and  merits  of  a  new  variety  of  jam,  this  would  be  ad- 
vertising it.  If  I  designed  an  announcement  merely 
displaying  the  name  of  the  new  jam  that  would  be 
only  publicity.  By  the  detailed  description  I  should 
expect  to  convince  householders  that  my  jam  was 
palatable,  wholesome,  and  economical.  But  as  they 
might  not  have  their  minds  sufficiently  concentrated 
on  the  important  subject  of  eating,  to  ensure  their 
remembering  to  buy  my  goods,  the  effect  of  my 
argument  could  be  reinforced  by  displaying  the 
name  by  itself,  in  newspapers  or  on  posters,  electric 
signs,  and  even  almanacs,  fans,  and  perhaps  little 
plates  on  which  jam  could  be  served  to  the  patrons 
of  hotels  and  tea-shops.  The  cumulative  effect 
of  this  constant  repetition,  recalling  to  memory  the 
argument  of  my  newspaper  advertisements  and 
pamphlets,  would  make  these  newspaper  advertise- 
ments more  effective.  As  I  showed  in  a  previous 
lecture,  goods  have  sometimes  been  sold  by  publicity 
alone.  Indeed  the  example  of  Pears'  soap,  which  in 
England  has  seldom  been  recommended  in  any  other 
way,  will  occur  to  all  of  you.  But  modern  conditions 
tend  with  increasing  force  to  favour  mixed  modes 
of  announcement,  and  I  do  not  think  that  pure 
publicity  will  in  the  future  be  often  used,  except 
for  commxodities  about  which  it  is  diflScult  to  use 
argumentative  advertising  at  all.  There  are  not 
many  of  these.  Almost  everything  has  something 
distinctive   about   it ;    and    indeed    even   the   most 


THREE  MAIN  MODES  OF  ADVERTISEMENT         183 

unpromising  subjects  can  be  described  in  one  way  or 
another.  For  instance,  if  I  patented  a  newly  shaped 
shirt  collar,  it  would  no  doubt  be  very  difficult  to  say 
anything  about  it  in  Words  that  could  not  be  much 
more  efficiently  conveyed  to  the  mind  by  a  picture 
of  the  collar,  with  the  trade-mark  or  name.  But 
the  picture  itself  would  be  a  description,  and  would 
bring  the  announcement  into  the  classification  of 
Advertising,  not  mere  publicity. 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  for  Advertising,  in  the  strict 
sense  which  I  have  momentarily  attached  to  it, 
Press  advertising  and  printed  matter  are  the  most 
obvious  modes,  while  for  what  I  have  been  calling 
*  publicity '  the  supreme  medium  is  the  poster. 
The  line  of  demarcation  is  not  sharp.  There  are 
press  advertisements  which  merely  announce  and 
posters  that  imply  some  amount  of  argument  : 
in  fact  the  same  copy  generally  does  both  of  these 
things,  whatever  the  medium  used.  But  for  present 
purposes,  the  distinction  will  serve,  if  we  remember 
that  detail  is  more  appropriate  in  the  one  place  and 
bold  announcement  in  the  other. 

The  problem  which  has  to  be  considered  in 
selecting  the  medium  for  advertisements  is  a  very 
simple,  but  very  difficult  one — simple,  because  the 
only  question  is  what  medium  will  produce  the 
greatest  effect  at  the  least  cost ;  and  difficult,  because 
a  good  deal  of  experience  is  required  in  order 
to  judge  of  this.  The  Press,  the  most  important 
medium  of  all,  includes  every  kind  of  newspaper, 
periodical,  and  magazine,  from  the  Daily  Mail  to 
the  Quarterly  Review,  An  advertiser  seeking  the 
most  efficient  and  economical  medium  has  first  to 
decide  whether  he  will  use  the  Press,  and  whether 


i84  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

he  will  use  it  alone  or  in  combination  with  other 
modes  of  advertisement ;  and  next,  what  class  of 
publications  to  use  and  what  individual  publications 
within  that  class.     It  is  not  easy. 

I  cannot  lay  down  any  general  rules  to  guide  you 
in  distributing  an  advertising  appropriation ;  the 
decision  will  vary  according  to  the  product,  the  price 
of  the  product,  the  resources  of  the  advertiser,  the 
modes  selected,  and  the  individual  media  within  the 
modes. 

Let  us  consider  first  the  Press.  Press  Advertising 
is  the  most  efficient  and  economical  mode  where  you 
seek  to  address  the  whole  public  or  the  whole  of  a 
definite  class  of  the  public.  If  you  want  to  sell  an 
article  of  household  consumption  like  tea  or  bread, 
consumed  by  everybody  in  the  kingdom  ;  or  if  you 
want  to  sell  steel,  consumed  by  every  engineer  in  the 
kingdom  and  by  no  one  else,  you  will  use  the  Press. 
It  is  much  cheaper  to  print  your  bread  or  your  tea 
advertisement  at  a  cost  of,  say,  3^500  for  a  page  in  the 
Daily  Mail,  than  to  distribute  even  a  million  circulars 
about  tea  or  bread.  The  Daily  Mail  has  a  larger 
circulation  than  1,000,000  ;  and  you  could  not  even 
deliver  by  hand  a  circular  the  size  of  a  page  in  that 
paper  for  much  under  £s^^ — ^^^  shillings  a  thousand 
— let  alone  print  and  design  it  as  well.  Moreover, 
as  I  shall  show  presently,  a  message  carried  by  a 
newspaper  or  periodical  should  be  much  more  effective 
than  the  same  message  conveyed  in  any  other  way. 
The  only  alternative  to  the  Press  which  is  thoroughly 
efficient,  when  you  want  the  whole  public,  is  the 
poster,  which  is  even  cheaper. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  you  want  to  sell  steel, 
which  I   assume  for  the  moment  to   be   consumed 


THREE  MAIN  MODES  OF  ADVERTISEMENT         185 

by  every  engineer  and  by  no  one  else,  you  will  use 
such  a  paper  as  Engineering  or  the  Engineer.  A 
pamphlet  or  circular  sufficiently  good  to  obtain  the 
attention  of  the  man  with  authority  to  buy  such  a 
product  as  steel  would  have  to  cost  a  great  deal 
more  than  even  a  series  of  advertisements  in  such  a 
paper  ;  and  there  is  a  risk  that  you  might  not  thus 
obtain  the  attention  of  some  of  these  men  at  all, 
from  purely  accidental  reasons.  I  do  not  say  that 
the  technical  Press,  for  such  a  product,  should  be  the 
sole  medium  of  advertising  ;  but  evidently  it  ought 
to  be  used.  I  did  not  say  that  popular  papers  must 
be  the  sole  medium  for  advertising  bread  or  tea. 

Even  among  publications   intended   to   be   read 

by  the  general  public  there  are,  of  course,  classes 

sharply    distinguished    one    from    another.     If    you 

wanted    to    sell    seven-and-sixpenny    trousers,    you 

would  not  advertise  them  in   ^he  Times ;    and  if 

you  wanted  to  sell  seven-and-sixpenny  cigars,  you 

would  not  advertise  them  in  Comic  Cuts.     There  are 

papers   read  entirely  by  the   rich :    my    friend,   the 

proprietor  of  Land  and  Water^  estimates   that  the 

poorest  of  his  subscribers  has  ,£1000  a  year  :    on  the 

other  hand  there  are  papers  which,  from  the  nature 

of  their  contents,  do  not  go  into  educated  and  refined 

homes.     The  choice  of  individual  newspapers  can  only 

be  successfully  exercised  through  experience.     The 

nature  of  the  reading-matter  is  a  partial  guide,  but 

it  is  no  more.     To  the  casual  observer,   I  suppose 

the  Daily  News  would  look  pretty  much  like   some 

other  daily  papers.     The  Daily  News  gives  quite  a 

different  sort  of  results  from  those  given  by  most 

dailies    of    a    popular    type.     It    disappoints    some 

advertisers — but  that  is  their  own  fault.     It  gives 


i86  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

remarkable  value  to  others,  who  know  how  to  use 
it  as  a  medium  ;  for  it  is  a  fact  that  if  you  advertised 
anything  of  a  cheap  and  showy  nature  in  this  paper 
— something  which  in  some  other  dailies  of  large, 
popular  circulation  would  give  good  results — you 
would  fail  to  sell  the  goods.  But  if  you  advertised 
solid,  substantial  pieces  of  furniture,  costing  forty 
or  fifty  pounds,  you  would  sell  them  with  ease.  It 
is  not  enough  to  know  the  contents  of  a  paper,  or 
even  the  number  circulated.  You  must  know  some- 
thing about  the  character  of  the  readers.  The 
Spectator,  read  by  people  of  the  upper  classes,  might 
seem  just  the  medium  to  sell  jewellery ;  but  in  point 
of  fact  what  it  does  sell  supremely  well  is  books. 
Why  is  the  Daily  Telegraph  the  unequalled  medium 
for  advertising  concerts,  sheet-music  and  pianos  ? 
Not  because  it  has  a  larger  circulation  than  any  other 
London  daily — it  has  not — but  because  it  is  read 
hy  musical  people.  Probably  the  basic  reason  is 
that  the  Daily  Telegraph,  being  owned  by  Jews,  has 
always  had  a  big  Jewish  circulation,  and  everyone 
knows  that  Jews  are  the  most  musical  race  in  the 
world.  Nearly  all  the  great  composers  were  Jews. 
Most  of  the  best  executants  have  been  Jews.  Thus 
the  Daily  Telegraph  was  read  by  Jews,  used  as  a 
medium  by  Jews  in  the  music  business,  and  became 
the  accepted  medium.  Presently  Christians  interested 
in  music — what  few  there  are  of  us — followed  ;  and 
when  a  great  part  of  any  kind  of  advertising  settles 
into  one  medium,  the  whole  of  that  kind  of  advertising 
gravitates  towards  it. 

I  mention  these  instances  with  the  object  of 
illustrating  to  you  the  great  difficulty  of  selecting 
individual  papers  in  which  to  publish  advertisements. 


THREE  MAIN  MODES  OF  ADVERTISEMENT        187 

Naturally  I  could  not  go  through  the  whole  of  the 
2200  odd  newspapers  and  periodicals  of  the  United 
Kingdom  and  tell  you  their  characteristic  merits 
and  defects.  But  1  can  classify  publications  for  you, 
pointing  out  the  special  uses  of  each  class. 

First  of  all  come  the  real  newspapers — papers 
which  are  mainly  read  for  information  on  current 
events — from  political  and  foreign  news  to  crime 
and  the  attractive  journalism  of  the  Coroners'  and 
Divorce  Courts.  These  are  subdivided  into  morning, 
evening,  Sunday,  and  weekly  papers.  Next  there 
are  those  weeklies  which  are  not  newspapers  in  the 
limited  sense.  This  class  is  divided  into  a  number 
of  sub-classes,  such  as  popular  papers  like  Tit-Bits  ; 
satirical,  as  London  Opinion^  and  so  forth  ;  political 
and  literary,  like  .  the  Spectator  and  the  Nation ; 
religious  weeklies  like  the  Church  Times  and  the 
Christian  Commonwealth  ;  class  and  hobby  papers, 
like  the  Amateur  Photographer ;  illustrated  weeklies 
of  which  the  Graphic  in  one  subdivision  and  the 
Sketch  in  another  are  types  (and  I  should  really 
classify  Punch  with  these,  and  not  with  the  cheaper 
satirical  weeklies)  ;  ladies'  papers,  like  the  Queen  ; 
a  few  sporting  papers  ;  and  of  course  trade  papers, 
like  the  Drapers^  Record  or  the  Chemist  and  Druggist ; 
and  technical  papers  like  the  Lancet  or  the  Economist. 

Next  come  magazines — popular  monthlies  like 
the  Strand ;  and  serious  monthlies  like  the  Con- 
temporary Review  and  quarterlies  like  the  Edinburgh 
Review. 

I  will  begin  operations  with  newspapers — publica- 
tions which  are  bought  for  actual  information  on 
events.  Evidently  these  are  the  medium  for  adver- 
tising  products   and   utilities   of   constant   use.     So 


1 88  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

completely  is  the  daily  paper  the  established  medium 
for  some  of  these  announcements,  that  if  they  were 
not  inserted  by  the  persons  interested,  newspapers 
would  ultimately  find  it  necessary  to  publish  them 
for  the  convenience  of  readers.  In  my  first  Lecture 
I  tried  to  show  how  inconvenient  life  would  be  if 
these  advertisements  were  lacking.  Theatrical  per- 
formances, concerts,  exhibitions  of  pictures,  auction 
and  property  sales,  steamship  sailings,  the  current 
prices  of  coal,  and  many  other  subjects,  in  fact, 
produce  advertising  which  is  news  in  the  fullest  sense. 
Daily  newspapers  would  be  deprived,  in  part,  of 
their  usefulness,  if  these  announcements  did  not 
appear.  The  same  remark  applies  to  situation 
advertisements  and  the  small  classified  announce- 
ments technically  called  *  wants.' 

The  number  of  these  small  advertisements  carried 
by  a  newspaper  is  often  accepted  as  a  test  of  com- 
mercial influence — especially  by  canvassers  repre- 
senting newspapers  which  carry  a  great  number  of 
them.  But  it  is  not  a  complete  test.  A  large  number 
of  what  newspaper  men  call  '  smalls '  are  not  a 
proof  that  the  paper  will  sell  all  advertised  goods. 
Advertisements  in  particular  and  restricted  classes, 
when  they  once  get  into  a  paper,  tend  to  grow,  as  I 
have  already  mentioned,  with  an  example.  They 
even  tend  to  appear  on  particular  days.  On  Tuesdays 
— and  on  other  days,  but  especially  on  Tuesdays — 
the  Morning  Post  carries  a  great  number  of  adver- 
tisements for  domestic  servants.  Many  years  ago 
^he  Times  was  the  supreme  medium  for  this  kind  of 
advertising,  which  gradually  left  it  for  the  Morning 
Post.  If  you  accepted  the  greater  popularity  of  this 
paper  for  '  servants-wanted  '  advertisements  as  proof 


THREE  MAIN  MODES  OF  ADVERTISEMENT         189 

that  it  was  a  more  influential  commercial  medium 
than  l^he  Times,  which  until  lately  carried  much 
fewer,  and  some  papers  of  large  circulation  which  do 
not  carry  any  at  all,  you  would  be  going  rather  far. 

This  question  of  whether  *  wants '  are  a  test 
of  advertising  value  is  one  of  many  which  prove 
the  extreme  difficulty  of  selecting  media.  If  I  had 
nothing  else  to  guide  me — if  I  were  working,  as  I 
have  often  worked,  in  a  foreign  or  colonial  city — I 
would  much  rather  select  my  papers  by  observing* 
which  of  them  carried  my  competitors'  advertising, 
than  by  choosing  those  with  the  most  '  wants.' 
And  even  this  is  not  a  complete  test.  The  paper 
which  has  the  best  advertisement-manager  often 
gets  more  than  its  share  of  advertisements.  The 
management  of  Advertising  in  newspaper  offices 
is  a  very  complex  subject,  on  which  a  whole  series 
of  lectures  might  easily  be  delivered. 

As  between  morning  and  evening  papers,  there 
is  one  very  sharp  distinction  resulting  from  the 
circumstances  of  their  publication.  If  you  want 
results  from  the  home  town,  and  are  not  in  a  position 
to  take  advantage  of  demand  created  elsewhere,  you 
must  use  the  evening  paper.  If  you  are  advertising 
for  a  provincial  retailer,  for  instance,  you  must  use 
the  evening  paper.  A  morning  paper  always  travels 
farther  afield  than  an  evening  paper,  because  it  has 
a  longer  time  in  which  to  travel.  A  morning  paper 
is  printed  somewhere  about  midnight,  to  catch  the 
newspaper  trains.  Many  papers  run  an  edition 
which  goes  to  the  machine  much  later  in  the  night, 
for  local  publication.  But  this  does  not  affect  the 
question,  because  the  advertisements  appear  in  all 
editions.    There  is  time  for  a  morning  paper  to  be 


190  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

six  hours  or  more  on  the  rails,  and  still  be  early 
enough  for  the  breakfast-table  delivery  at  a  distance 
of  200  miles  or  more.  An  evening  paper,  however 
many  editions  it  may  print,  has  to  be  all  finished 
by  about  a  quarter  past  five.  The  chief  circulation 
is  all  in  the  last  two  editions,  printed  between  four 
o'clock  and  a  very  little  after  five  ;  and  the  sale  is  dead 
soon  after  seven.  Thus  you  get  a  circulation  that  is 
concentrated  near  at  hand  ;  and  I  need  hardly  remind 
you  that  however  little  good  circulation  may  be 
calculated  to  do  you  outside  your  selling  area,  you 
will  have  to  pay  for  it  in  the  rates  which  the 
newspaper  will  charge  you  for  your  space. 

There  are  towns  where  one  evening  paper  covers 
the  whole  area  from  which  retail  advertisers  can  get 
results,  hardly  a  copy  going  any  farther  ;    for  you 
must  remember  that  where  a  town  is  large  enough 
to  support  a  newspaper,  it  is  sure  to  draw  business 
from  the  villages  and  rural  district  outside.     I  will 
give  you  a  practical  suggestion  on  the  use  of  such 
papers.     To  some  extent  it  is  true  of  other  daily 
papers  too  ;    but  it  is  something  like  a  miracle  of 
precision  in   these  evening  papers.     It  is  this.     If 
you  can  by  any  means  manage  it,  go  into  the  paper 
every  day.     I  have  several  times,  in  my  consulting 
practice,    used   this   plan   for   provincial   retailers — 
sometimes  when  I  suffered  considerable  anxiety  on 
account  of  the  money  I  was  causing  my  clients  to 
spend — and  I  never  knew  it  to  fail.     One  such  re- 
tailer,   1   remember,    abandoned,   by   my   advice,   a 
considerable  expense  on  various  forms  of  advertising, 
and  concentrated  on  the  one  evening  paper  in  his 
town.     His   total   annual   expenditure  was   reduced 
by  some  hundreds   of  pounds.     But  his   turnover, 


THREE  MAIN  MODES  OF  ADVERTISEMENT         191 

by  the  end  of  six  months,  had  increased  no  less  than 
40  per  cent.  There  was  another  man,  whom  I 
remember  very  well,  because  I  was  very  uneasy  about 
him.  He  had  very  little  money  ;  his  business  was 
declining  ;  his  health  was  not  very  good.  He  either 
had  to  sell  his  business  that  year,  or  shut  up  shop. 
He  came  to  me  to  ask  how  to  sell  it.  I  advised  him 
first  to  get  a  business  to  sell.  He  was  only  able  to 
afford  a  very  small  advertisement,  so,  to  make  it 
very  distinctive,  I  bought  him  a  small  font  of  type, 
for  the  newspaper  to  use  in  setting  it  up  ;  and  we 
had  it  inserted  daily.  The  results  were  so  good, 
that  although  he  was  not  very  clever  at  his  business, 
his  turnover  increased  at  a  rate  which  enabled  him 
to  get  a  very  good  price  indeed  for  the  goodwill 
before  the  year  was  up,  and  he  had  made  a  good  profit 
in  the  meantime  through  the  sales  produced  by  the 
advertisements.  That  is  what  you  get  by  being 
in  the  paper  every  night. 

Part  of  my  business  to-night,  in  discussing  the 
appropriation  of  advertising  expenditure,  is  to  protect 
you  against  fallacious  canvassing.  Naturally,  the 
advertisement-manager  of  a  newspaper  sends  his 
men  out  with  a  good  story,  based  on  what  he  knows 
— and  preferably  can  prove  in  some  way,  or  seem  to 
prove — of  the  results  obtained  by  his  best  customers. 
That  is  his  duty.  That  is  what  he  is  paid  to  do. 
You  must  observe  carefully,  that  the  medium  which 
is  right  for  one  advertiser  may  not  be  right  for 
another,  though  the  advertisement-manager  may 
quite  honestly  fail  to  appreciate  this  fact.  Like 
everything  else  in  Advertising,  newspaper  canvassing 
tends  more  and  more  to  be  honest  and  straight- 
forward.    Advertisement-managers  of  the  best  papers 


192  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

will  no  longer  solicit,  and  sometimes  will  not  even 
accept,  advertisements  which  they  believe  will  not 
pay  the  advertiser.  When  I  was  at  The  Times,  I 
refused  quite  a  quantity  of  perfectly  respectable 
advertisements  for  this  reason  alone.  But  it  is  the 
business  of  the  advertiser  to  know  what  kind  of 
paper  will  pay  him.  There  are  arguments  which, 
on  the  face  of  them,  seem  unanswerable,  while  only 
actual  experience  proves  them  wrong.  I  introduce 
this  subject  here,  because  an  example  of  it  applies 
to  the  subject  of  morning  and  evening  papers  which 
I  was  discussing.  An  evening  paper  ought  to  be 
the  best  possible  medium  for  obtaining  direct  replies 
— orders  and  inquiries  by  post.  Everybody  knows 
that  advertisements  are  answered  very  largely  by 
women  and  by  young  people.  Elderly  people  and  men 
are  not  so  easily  induced  to  write  a  letter,  unless 
persuaded  by  these  others — their  juniors — to  do  so. 
The  morning  paper  travels  away  from  the  home. 
Father  reads  it  at  breakfast,  thereby  provoking  most 
justly  the  wrath  and  indignation  of  his  spouse ;  then 
he  puts  it  in  his  pocket  and  goes  to  business.  The 
evening  paper  travels  home.  It  is  bought  to  read 
in  the  train  or  omnibus,  and  comes  right  into  the 
house  when  everyone  is  at  leisure  to  read  advertise- 
ments and  write  letters.  The  woman  of  the  house 
has  her  opportunity.  The  sons  and  daughters  are 
at  hand  to  use  their  influence.  Assuredly  the 
evening  paper  is  the  paper  that  will  produce  direct 
replies. 

There  is  not  a  single  flaw  in  this  argument.  It 
seems  completely  water-tight.  There  is  only  one 
thing  the  matter  with  it.  That  is,  that  it  is  not  true. 
It  is  supported  by  the  fact  that  evening  newspapers 


THREE  MAIN  MODES  OF  ADVERTISEMENT        193 

do  unquestionably  sell  goods.  But  alongside  of 
this  is  the  other  fact,  that  in  towns  where  there  is 
any  popular  morning  ^aper  at  all,  or  where  such  a 
paper  from  outside  has  a  big  circulation,  the  evening 
paper  does  not,  according  to  experience,  produce 
anything  like  the  same  number  of  direct  replies 
as  the  morning  paper.  All  the  probabilities  are  the 
other  way.  But  all  the  facts  are  this  way.  And  I 
believe  I  can  tell  you  the  reason,  and  I  will  tell  you 
now,  because  what  I  have  to  say  applies  more  directly 
to  papers  of  the  news  and  political  class  than  to 
others,  though  it  does  apply  to  all  papers  more  or  less. 
It  is  this.  About  the  last  thing  that  a  newspaper 
or  periodical  is  able  to  do,  is  to  make  its  readers  write 
letters  and  send  orders  by  post.  It  takes  a  very 
influential  paper  to  do  that.  Now,  the  influence 
of  a  newspaper,  as  an  advertising  medium,  is  very 
greatly  affected  by  the  degree  of  respect  in  which 
the  paper  is  held  by  its  readers.  I  believe  it  to  be 
more  affected  by  this,  in  proportion  of  course  to  its 
sale,  than  by  any  other  thing  whatever.  Evening 
papers,  as  a  class,  have  many  merits.  But  I  do 
not  think  any  of  you  will  contend  that  evening  papers 
in  general — there  are  noticeable  exceptions  ;  the 
Westminster  Gazette  is  one — are  edited  with  the 
same  earnestness,  or  read  with  the  same  esteem,  as 
the  majority  of  morning  papers  Anything  which 
discredits  a  paper,  and  damages  its  reputation,  injures 
its  advertisers.  Mail-order  advertisers,  who  can 
and  must  trace  results  with  great  accuracy,  im- 
mediately notice  the  falling  off  in  replies — a  much 
greater  falling  off  than  can  generally  be  accounted 
for  by  any  known  loss  of  circulation.  Up  to  the 
time   of  the  Parnell  Commission — up   to  the  time 


194  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

when  the  Pigott  forgeries  in  The  Times  were  exposed, 
The  Times  was  a  most  powerful  medium  for  Advertis- 
ing. Its  influence  after  this  exposure  declined  far 
more  than  its  circulation,  and  even  when  I  became 
advertisement-manager  of  The  Times  m  1905,  fourteen 
years  later,  had  not  been  fully  recovered.  I  think 
that  to-day  The  Times  is  probably  as  good  a  medium 
as  before  its  historic  blunder.  It  can  never  be  the 
supreme  medium  that  it  was  in,  for  instance, 
Macaulay's  time,  because  of  course  it  has  enormously 
more  competition.  But  it  has  recovered  from  the 
Pigott  scandal,  though  with  difficulty. 

Some  Sunday  papers  have  the  same  kind  of  value 
for  advertising  every-day  things  as  dailies,  and  their 
circulation  is  equally  ephemeral.  Provincial  weeklies, 
once  very  important,  have  suffered  by  the  extended 
sale  of  popular  dailies.  Thirty  years  ago,  millions 
of  people  obtained  their  news  from  no  other  source. 
To-day  practically  every  family  in  Great  Britain, 
and  nearly  every  family  in  Ireland,  buys  a  daily 
paper.  The  circulation  of  provincial  weeklies,  rarely 
revealed,  is  generally  small ;  but  in  rural  districts 
particularly  they  are  read  for  local  news  which 
is  not  published  anywhere  else,  and  if  not  allowed 
to  charge  too  much  for  the  space,  are  quite  worth 
using. 

A  weekly  paper  of  any  kind — I  am  including  the 
London  weeklies  which  have  national  circulation — 
has  seven  days'  life,  where  a  morning  paper  has  only 
one  day,  and  an  evening  paper  only  a  few  hours, 
to  live.  The  more  expensive  weeklies — such  as 
Land  and  Water,  Punch,  Country  Life,  the  Graphic, 
are  kept  much  longer ;  indeed,  I  doubt  whether 
a  copy  of  any  of  them  is  ever  wilfully  destroyed. 


THREE  MAIN  MODES  OF  ADVERTISEMENT        195 

The  advertisements  in  them  have  a  longer  chance 
to   be   read,    you    may   say.     Perhaps    they   have ; 
but  I  have  seen  repliee  to  a  daily-paper  advertise- 
ment dribble  in,  on  one  occasion  ten  months  and 
on  another  fourteen   months  after  date,  and  I   do 
not  remember  to  have  seen  replies  from    weeklies 
any  later.     But  of  course  these  delayed  replies  are 
very  few.     Replies  from  a  daily  paper  come  in  fastest 
during  the  first  forty-eight  hours — not  many  after 
the  end  of  the  first  week :  very  few  after  the  second 
week.     Replies  from  weeklies — those  of  them  which 
fetch  replies   at   all  in  large  numbers — only  come 
in  very  slowly  after  a  week  :  there  is  not  much  differ- 
ence.    The  higher  the  price  of  publication,  the  longer 
a   paper  is  kept ;    but   then   the  higher  the  price, 
the    fewer    replies    you    get.     I    only    mention    the 
reply-test  because  it  is  easy  to  measure,  and  because 
it  is  definite.     A  paper  can  be  a  very  good  medium 
for  selling  goods  through  tradesmen,  though  a  very 
poor  one  for  mail-order  replies.     I  believe  the  reason 
of  this  is  that  a  person's  mood  is  affected  by  the 
paper  that  he  is  reading.     Just  as  readers'  respect 
for    the    editorial   conduct  of    a    paper    makes  it  a 
better   advertising  medium^  so  its  character  affects 
his    action.     The   same    man   who   will   answer    an 
advertisement   in   the  Daily   Mail  will  not   answer 
the    same    advertisement     in    l^he    Times,     Why  ? 
Because  when  he  is  reading  The  Times  he  is  in  a 
'  Times '    frame   of  mind.     If   he   wants   something 
that  is  advertised  he  will  order  it  from  his  tradesmen. 
But  when  he  reads  the  Daily  Mail  he  is  in  a  '  Daily 
Mail '  frame  of  mind — rather  eager,  rather  excitable, 
rather  energetic,  not  so  dignified  and  reserved.     The 
Daily   Mail   is    a    very    fine    advertising   medium — 


196  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

perhaps  the  best  all-round  medium  in  the  kingdom  ; 
but  no  one  would  call  it  reserved. 

A  thing  which  would  puzzle  you  is  the  excellence 
of  popular  monthly  magazines  in  respect  of  obtaining 
direct  replies   and  orders  by  post.     The  advertise- 
ments are  all  lumped  together.     They  are  not  next 
to   reading   matter.     No   one   sees    them   unless   he 
deliberately  looks  for  them.     Yet  popular  monthlies 
give   fine    results  in    mail-order  advertising.     There 
seem  to  be  two  reasons  for  this.     First  there  are  a 
great  many  pages  of  advertising,  and  this  appears  to 
have  some  psychological  effect  in  making  people  go 
through  them.     So  far  from  competition  being  bad 
for  the  advertisers,  it  seems  to  be  good  for  them,  and 
this  is  a  pretty  general  rule.     When  Punch  carried 
practically  no  advertising  except  on  the  back  page, 
it  was  not  nearly  so  good  an  advertising  medium  as 
it  is  now,  with  20  or  more  pages  of  advertisements. 
A  magazine  with  few  advertisements  does  not  fetch 
so  many  replies  as  one  with  many,  nor  does  it  sell 
so  much    merchandise.     This    is    no    doubt    partly 
because     the     big     circulations     obtain     the     most 
patronage ;    but  it  works  the  other  way,  too.     The 
Morning    Post    is    a    somewhat    better    commercial 
medium  to-day,  when  it  carries   a  fair  amount   of 
advertising,  than  it  was   a  few  years  ago  when  it 
carried  hardly  anything  but  '  wants.' 

The  other  reason  why  magazine  advertisements 
are  effective  is  because  the  average  merit  of  the 
copy  is  high — much  higher  than  in  dailies.  Readers 
find  a  number  of  interesting  advertisements  in  every 
issue,  and  learn  to  look  at  all  the  advertisements. 
I  have  no  doubt  that  the  care  with  which  my  old  friend 
Mr.    Roy   Somerville   attends   to   the   printing   and 


THREE  MAIN  MODES  OF  ADVERTISEMENT        197 

arrangement  of  advertisements  in  Punch  contributes 
to  the  extraordinary  merit  of  Punch  as  an  advertising 
medium.  Its  circulation  has  increased  since  the 
number  of  advertisement  pages  was  enlarged,  and 
if  still  more  pages  were  used  results  from  advertising 
would  still  further  improve.  It  has  been  said  that 
an  empty  shop  next  door  is  worse  for  a  retailer  than 
an  active  competitor,  and  I  know  this  to  be  true. 
Similarly,  the  worst  neighbour  that  a  good  advertise- 
ment can  have  is  a  poor  advertisement,  or  no  adver- 
tisement at  all,  and  the  worst  neighbour  an  honest 
advertisement  can  have  is  a  dishonest  advertisement. 

One  fact  often  mentioned  as  an  argument  in 
favour  of  magazine  advertising,  is  that  replies  are 
received,  months  after  publication,  from  remote 
places  abroad.  What  a  tremendous  power  the 
magazine  must  wield  if  it  reaches  so  far !  But  I 
think  this  argument  is  rather  overdone.  Very  few 
advertisers  have  a  market  in  Kamschatka  or  WooUo- 
mooUoo  !  However  efficiently  they  may  advertise 
there,  the  order  book  will  not  feel  it.  And  these 
foreign  inquiries  are  not  very  numerous,  anyway ; 
but  they  seem  so  to  the  delighted  advertiser — even 
if  (as  is  often  the  case)  they  come  from  a  nigger 
whose  real  object  is  to  obtain  some  free  samples. 

Newspapers  influence  the  efficiency  of  the  adver- 
tisements which  they  publish ;  and  advertisements 
influence  the  newspapers  which  publish  them.  It 
would  be  futile  to  deny  that  Advertising  is  sometimes 
abused.  There  a^e  announcements,  not  yet  entirely 
suppressed,  which  defile  any  paper.  There  are  others 
which  overstep  the  line  of  strict  honesty  ;  any  publica- 
tion which  excludes  them  does  good  service  to  itself 
and  to  the  public.     I    think  my  friend  Mr.   John 


198  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

Hart,  advertisement  manager  of  London  Opinion^ 
an  untiring  and  enthusiastic  worker  for  the  good  of 
Advertising  in  general,  was  the  first  to  make  a 
paper  responsible  for  its  advertisements.  He  prints 
every  week  this  guarantee,  and  interprets  it  in 
practice  with  great  strictness,  that  if  goods  advertised 
in  London  Opinion  are  misrepresented,  either  the 
advertiser  will  return  the  money  or  London  Opinion 
will  do  so.  I  think  Mr.  Hart  was  also  the  first  to 
make  public  the  circulation  of  a  paper  in  the  only 
really  satisfactory  way — namely,  by  revealing,  not 
merely  the  number  of  copies  printed  or  the  number 
issued  to  newsagents,  but  the  number  of  copies 
actually  bought  by  the  public.  Less  than  five  per 
cent  of  the  papers  and  periodicals  in  this  country 
publish  any  statement  at  all  of  their  circulation  ; 
much  less  than  i  per  cent  publish  the  actual  sales, 
and  over  95  per  cent  refuse  to  tell  the  advertiser 
anything  at  all  about  the  circulation  that  he  gets 
for  his  money.  This  is  an  abuse  which  must  ulti- 
mately be  corrected.  The  Advertisers'  Protection 
Society  has  for  years  been  trying  to  cure  it,  and  I 
think  a  large  measure  of  success  cannot  be  delayed 
for  many  years  longer. 

Second  in  importance  to  the  Press — but  only  a 
little  way  behind  as  an  advertising  medium — is  the 
Poster.  Posters  are  feared  by  many  advertisers  on 
the  ground  of  expense.  A  poster  is  such  a  big  affair, 
and  looks  so  important,  that  one  is  apt  to  think  it 
must  cost  a  great  deal.  Of  course  it  is  true  that  a 
16-sheet  poster — 80  in.  by  120  in. — consumes  a  great 
deal  of  paper,  and  costs  a  lot  to  print — especially 
now.  And  billposters  charge  a  great  deal.  Never- 
theless all  this  is  a  matter  for  comparison.    The  same 


THREE  MAIN  MODES  OF  ADVERTISEMENT        199 

advertiser  who  would  order  a  three-inch  advertise- 
ment in  only  one  or  two  papers  would  not  order  a 
poster,  though  quite  a  small  man  can  use  posters 
without  running  into  more  expense  than  would  be 
involved  in  newspaper-advertising  of  equal  relative 
prominence. 

A  year's  display,  all  over  the  kingdom,  making 
the  advertiser  the  most  prominent  man  on  the 
hoardings,  would  have  cost,  before  the  War,  including 
the  posters  themselves,  about  5^38,000.  To  be  equally 
the  most  prominent  advertiser  in  the  Press  would 
have  cost  about  £200,000.  The  mistake  often  made 
is  that  of  comparing  the  cost  of  one  poster  with  one 
Press  advertisement.  Such  an  advertisement,  in 
a  daily  or  weekly,  has  an  effective  run  of  about  a 
week,  as  I  have  shown.  To  do  a  month's  advertis- 
ing requires  not  less  than  four  insertions.  But  the 
unit  of  charge  for  billposting  is  a  month,  and  most 
contracts  are  for  three  months,  at  a  reduced  rate. 
It  is  not  very  useful  to  talk  about  printing-costs 
in  the  present  state  of  the  paper  market ;  but  some 
years  ago  I  prepared  some  figures  for  my  friend  Mr. 
Cyril  Sheldon  to  use  in  his  well-known  manual  of 
Billposting,!  which  prove  the  cheapness  of  poster 
advertising.  Even  the  considerable  increase  in  costs 
since  Mr.  Sheldon's  estimate  was  published  still 
leaves  the  poster  far  ahead  in  economy.  The  price 
in  191 3  of  a  full  front  page  in  the  Daily  Mail  was 
3^350  for  a  circulation  of  about  a  million  and  a  quarter, 
in  one  day.  The  same  money  would  have  paid  for 
exhibiting  a  16-sheet  poster,  which  is  the  size  generally 
in  ■  use,  to  a  population  of  four  times  a  million  and 

'Billposting:  a  Practical  Handbook  for  the  Use  0}  Advertisers. 
1916  :    Sheldons  Ltd.,  Leeds.     los.  6d.  net. 


200  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

a  quarter — that  is,  of  5,000,000 — in  London  for 
sixty  days.  And  it  would  have  paid  for  exhibiting 
a  poster  to  5,000,000  people  for  106  days  in  provin- 
cial towns  !  Making  every  allowance  for  the  closer 
view  obtained  from  readers  of  a  newspaper,  and 
every  other  advantage,  it  is  still  impossible  to  deny 
the  relative  economy  of  poster  advertising.  Its 
relative  efficiency  is  another  question,  and  depends 
upon  what  kind  of  efficiency  you  want. 

Two  great  advantages  of  the  poster  are  the 
rapidity  with  which  it  obtains  its  results,  and  their 
strictly  localised  character.  Posters  obtain  retail 
representation  much  sooner  than  newspaper  adver- 
tising. A  shopkeeper  who  sees  a  new  article 
advertised  in  the  local  paper  will  wait  a  long  time 
before  putting  it  into  stock — will  wait,  in  fact,  until 
he  begins  to  be  afraid  lest  customers  go  to  his  com- 
petitor for  the  goods.  But  when  he  sees  a  big  poster 
on  the  hoarding  across  the  street,  he  will  telegraph 
for  supplies.  To  obtain  the  same  relative  prominence 
in  local  newspapers  which  you  can  obtain  by  a  good 
poster,  you  would  require  very  large  space,  frequently 
repeated.  Taking  such  space  all  over  the  country, 
town  by  town,  is  much  more  expensive  than  using 
posters.  A  poster  has  not  all  the  advantages  of 
Press  advertising.  It  does  not  fetch  many  orders 
by  post.  You  cannot  expound  so  many  selling 
points,  nor  develop  your  arguments  so  fully.  The 
ideal  plan  is  to  use  posters  and  newspapers 
simultaneously.  Each  will  be  more  efficient  than 
if  used  alone.  And  some  goods  are  advertised  more 
efficiently  on  the  hoardings  than  others.  Everyday 
commodities — foods,  soaps,  beef  extracts,  beer, 
cocoa — are  better  subjects  for  billposting  than  things 


THREE  MAIN  MODES  OF  ADVERTISEMENT        201 

bought  by  a  restricted  class — motor-cars,  furniture, 
grand  pianos,  jewellery.  And  some  articles  are  of 
a  personal  and  intimate  nature  that  does  not  lend 
itself  to  billposting — as  medicines,  cosmetics,  hosiery, 
underlinen,  corsets,  pyjamas,  books — though  all 
these  things  have  been  thus  advertised  with  some 
success. 

No  form  of  Advertising  has  been  the  subject  of 
so  much  general  reprehension  as  the  poster.  Com- 
plaints of  ugliness  and  vulgarity  have  not  always 
been  unfounded.  But  of  late  years,  the  best  poster 
advertising  has  produced  some  really  beautiful 
designs,  and  the  humorous  posters  of  my  friend 
Mr.  John  Hassall,  R.I.,  have  added  to  public  gaiety, 
while  doing  good  service  to  advertisers.  The  poster 
is,  in  fact,  almost  the  only  mode  of  advertising  in 
which  humour  does  anything  but  mischief  to  the 
advertiser. 

The  strictly  local  character  of  billposting  is  an 
economy,  where  retail  distribution  is  not  nation-wide. 
Whatever  newspaper  you  may  use — even  the  evening 
paper — it  is  bound  to  circulate  in  some  place  where 
you  do  not  want  it.  But  the  poster  need  not  cost 
you  a  penny  anywhere  beyond  the  limits  of  your 
distribution.  It  carries  your  message  where  you 
want  it,  when  you  want  it,  and  as  you  want  it — to 
no  other  place,  at  no  other  time,  and  in  no  other  way. 
You  do  not  pay  for  any  waste  circulation  where  you 
use  a  poster.     Within  its  limitations,  it  is  perfect. 

Somewhat  the  same  may  be  said  of  printed 
matter  distributed  by  hand  or  sent  through  the  post. 
When  you  are  delivering  a  circular  or  pamphlet 
from  house  to  house,  or  addressing  it  from  directories 
or  lists,  there  is  no  excuse  for  wasting  a  single  copy 


202  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

on  the  wrong  person.  The  advantages  and  dis- 
advantages of  this  mode  of  advertising  can  be  easily 
balanced.  The  advantages  are  that  the  expenditure 
is  strictly  localised,  and  that  you  can  print  and 
illustrate  your  story  with  great  fulness  and  in  any 
style  you  choose.  The  disadvantages  are  that  you 
are  not  certain  of  reaching  your  man,  and  that  you 
lack  the  prestige  borrowed  from  the  newspaper.  If 
he  is  wealthy,  or  busy,  his  letters  may  be  opened 
by  a  secretary,  and  a  circular  thrown  away ;  and 
he  may  even  throw  it  away  himself  because  it  does 
not  interest  him.  People  often  ask  me  what  they 
must  do  to  ensure  a  form-letter,  circular,  or  pamphlet 
being  read — what  kind  of  envelope  to  use,  what 
stationery,  whether  to  send  by  letter-post  in  a  plain 
or  in  a  printed  envelope,  or  by  book-post  in  a  wrapper. 
There  is  but  one  way  to  get  your  matter  read,  and 
that  is,  to  make  it  worth  reading.  What  is  inside 
the  envelope  has  much  more  importance  than  what 
is  outside.  Of  course  you  must  suit  your  style  of 
printing,  your  decorative  treatment,  your  envelope, 
and  the  rest,  to  your  public,  and  then,  further,  to 
your  subject ;  but  nothing  will  make  your  message 
do  its  job  if  it  is  not  itself  efficient.  When  it  is 
efficient  in  itself  you  need  an  almost  perverted  in- 
genuity to  make  it  fail.  And  if  the  message  is  rightly 
presented,  there  is  no  other  way  in  which  you  can  tell 
your  story  with  the  same  completeness,  as  by  speak- 
ing thus  with  the  voice  of  the  printed  word. 

Although  this  way  of  advertising  is  expensive 
when  compared  with  Press  advertising,  because 
you  have  to  pay  for  all  the  printing  and  deliver  the 
message  at  your  own  charges,  you  can,  of  course, 
go  into  much  more  detail.     You  can  use  any  process 


TPIREE  MAIN  MODES  OF  ADVERTISEMENT        203 

of  illustration  that  you  choose.  You  can  use  colour 
— a  very  potent  implement.  During  the  late  War, 
a  manufacturer  of  stovesi-and  other  hardware  wished 
to  sell  fewer  different  patterns  of  stoves,  on  account 
of  labour-shortage.  He  concentrated  the  demand 
on  a  few  models,  by  the  simple  device  of  using  coloured 
pictures  in  his  catalogue  for  those  that  he  wanted 
to  sell,  and  illustrated  the  rest  in  black  and  white. 
All  the  demand  created,  practically,  was  for  the 
models  shown  in  colour.  The  stock  in  hand  sufficed 
for  the  few  orders  which  he  had  for  the  others.  He 
was  saved  all  the  trouble  of  explaining  that  these 
could  not  be  supplied,  and  he  avoided  the  dis- 
advantage of  cutting  them  out,  which  would  very 
likely  have  made  them  unsaleable  after  the  War. 

One  practical  question  on  which  you  may  like 
me  to  touch  is  the  relative  efficiency  of  letter  rate 
and  book-post  rate.  Experience  shows  that  there 
is  not  so  much  difference  as  is  generally  believed. 
A  large  advertiser,  doing  a  popular  trade,  had  been 
posting  about  a  quarter  of  a  million  almanacs  every 
year,  in  closed  envelopes,  when  the  postage  was  a 
penny.  As  an  experiment,  he  sent  them,  one  year, 
in  halfpenny  wrappers,  and  to  his  great  surprise 
found  that  it  did  not  make  the  slightest  difference 
to  the  result,  though  it  saved  him  about  ;£soo  for 
postage.  I  have  seen  some  detailed  figures  of  .a 
similar  experiment  during  the  late  War.  This  was 
tried  on  a  small  scale,  before  despatching  a  large 
number  of  booklets.  Five  hundred  names  were 
addressed  at  random  from  the  same  list;  half  the 
books  were  sent  by  letter-post  and  half  the  other 
way.  The  results  were  twenty-five  orders  from  the 
letter-post   and   twenty-two    from    book-post.     The 


204  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

value  of  the  orders  received  was  practically  the  same 
either  way — only  "jd,  difference — and  the  average 
value  per  order  lo^.  in  favour  of  book-post.  Practically 
there  was  no  difference,  you  see. 

In  sending  out  a  pamphlet  or  catalogue, 
particularly  if  you  send  it  unprovoked,  without 
obtaining  an  application  for  it  through  newspaper 
advertising,  it  is  always  advisable  to  send  a  covering 
letter  very  carefully  prepared.  It  would  be  quite 
impossible,  even  if  one  devoted  an  entire  lecture 
to  the  subject,  to  teach  by  mere  precept  the  laws 
of  the  successful  form-letter.  I  can  only  mention 
leading  principles.  According  to  my  experience, 
it  is  not  efficient  to  send  a  form-letter  without  an 
enclosure,  nor  a  circular  or  pamphlet  without  a 
form-letter.  Machines  like  the  Gammeter  Multi- 
graph  and  the  Roneotype  produce  a  very  creditable 
imitation  of  ordinary  typewriting,  and  although 
it  is  not  very  easy  to  fill  in  names  and  addresses  so 
that  they  actually  match,  I  have  never  been  able 
to  find  that,  for  ordinary  purposes,  a  reasonably 
close  match  does  not  suffice.  You  get  better  results 
by  filling  in,  even  poorly,  than  by  not  putting  the 
name  and  address  of  the  inquirer  at  the  top,  if  you 
are  answering  inquiries ;  or,  especially,  those  of  the 
*  prospect,'  if  you  are  addressing  a  list.  The  latter 
case  is  much  the  more  important.  A  facsimile 
signature  in  writing-ink  colour  does  not  make  much 
difference  to  the  cost,  nor  yet  to  the  results.  Such 
devices  as  mistakes,  corrected  in  the  same  way,  blots, 
and  letters  apparently  knocked  out  with  dashes, 
as  if  the  typist  had  made  a  mistake,  may  amuse  the 
advertiser,  but  they  do  not  make  any  measurable 
difference   to   the   result.     Letters   lithographed   to 


THREE  MAIN  MODES  OF  ADVERTISEMENT        205 

imitate  handwriting — and  these  can  be  printed  with 
sufficient  exactness  to  deceive  almost  anyone — have 
never  given  me  such  go^d  results  as  facsimile  type- 
writing. 

In  fact,  nothing  that  you  can  do  to  vary  the 
methods  of  production  is  nearly  so  important  as 
what  you  can  do  to  improve  the  wording  and  con- 
struction of  a  letter ;  and  to  this  I  shall  devote  what 
little  time  remains. 

There  are  manuals  of  letter-making,  chiefly  of 
American  origin,  in  which  rules  are  laid  down  to 
govern  the  entire  architecture  of  the  job.  I  have 
no  objection  to  your  studying  these  books,  provided 
you  pay  no  attention  to  what  they  say.  In  some 
respects,  it  may  be  true  that  letters  will  produce 
results  in  the  United  States  which  would  most 
certainly  do  nothing  but  mischief  here.  But  it  is 
a  fact  that  I  sometimes  receive  from  American  firms 
requests  to  draft  form-letters  for  them.  Only  last 
month  I  wrote  a  series  of  eighteen  letters  for  a  very 
important  manufacturer  in  Boston,  Massachusetts, 
whose  own  letters,  which  he  sent  me,  were  very 
good  indeed,  and  would  have  done  good  work  here. 
I  am  inclined  to  believe — in  spite  of  really  awful 
examples  in  the  text-books — that  an  American 
concern,  addressing  a  good  class  of  people,  would 
find  it  advisable  to  use  almost  exactly  the  same 
kind  of  letter  that  would  suit  this  country. 

Two  points  of  a  form-letter  are  especially 
important — the  beginning  and  the  end  ;  but  the 
spirit  of  the  whole  is  more  important  than  either. 
When  you  draft  a  form-letter,  try  to  think  of  some 
individual  correspondent.  Forget  that  you  are 
writing  in  the  same  terms  to  a  thousand  or  a  hundred 


2o6  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

thousand  people.  Write  to  one  person.  That  will 
give  you  the  right  spirit — the  personal  tone.  After- 
wards you  may  think  about  construction — the 
opening  which  interests,  the  continuation  which 
draws  the  reader  on,  the  middle  portion  which  puts 
the  case  before  him,  the  wind-up  which  obtains 
action.     But  get  the  tone  right  first. 

It  is  usual  to  say  that  a  form-letter  should  begin 
with  *  You  ' — not  with  *  I  '  or  '  We  '  :  as  Colonel 
John  Hay,  the  author  of  the  '  Pike  County  Ballads,' 
said,  in  hexameters  : 

'  Who  would  succeed  in  this  life,  must  take  care 
in  the  use  of  his  pronouns.' 

*  Utter  the  "  you "  three  times  for  once  that 
you  utter  the  "  I.  "  ' 

(I  think  that  is  correctly  quoted.)  I  do  not  attach 
any  pragmatic  importance  to  the  '  You '  opening  ; 
but  naturally  the  letter  must  dwell  more  upon  the 
advantage  to  the  reader  of  adopting  your  proposal 
than  upon  your  own  anxiety  to  sell  him  the  goods. 

When  you  are  enclosing  a  circular  or  pamphlet, 
do  not  try  to  epitomise  the  whole  of  it  in  the  letter. 
The  objects  of  your  letter  are  only  two — to  get  the 
enclosure  read,  and  to  make  the  reader  act  upon 
it.  One  way  to  make  him  read  the  enclosure  is  to 
refer  to  specific  parts  of  it :  '  You  will  see  by  the 
illustration  on  page  7  that  .  .  .,'  and  so  on.  '  The 
statistics  quoted  on  page  11  will  convince  you  that 
.  .  .,'  &c.  This  plan,  used  with  discretion,  does 
excellent  work.  The  references  to  the  enclosure 
should  not  be  all  bunched  together,  nor  yet  dragged 
in  by  the  heels  :  they  must  come  in  naturally  and 
with  an  air  of  being  inevitable. 

The  other  function  of  the  form-letter — to  obtain 


THREE  MAIN  MODES  OF  ADVERTISEMENT        207 

action — is  achieved  by  giving  the  reader  something 
to  do.  Let  this  be  your  last  word  to  him— that  he 
must  do  some  one  thing,  whether  it  is  to  send  you  an 
order,  or  go  to  a  retailer  for  your  goods,  or  something 
else  :  but  something.  In  a  follow-up,  it  is  sometimes 
very  effective  not  to  ask  for  an  order  at  all,  but 
to  ask  some  question.  I  wrote  a  follow-up  the  other 
day  for  the  manufacturer  of  a  technical  appliance, 
saying  nothing  at  all  about  orders,  but  asking  the 
reader,  '  What  do  you  do  in  such-and-such  a  con- 
tingency ? '  The  answer  ought  to  be  '  I  should  use 
.  .  .,'  the  thing  I  was  trying  to  sell  him.  You  can 
see  how  much  more  efficient  this  can  be  than  merely 
clamouring  for  business  :  you  drive  a  reader  to  the 
very  answer  that  you  want.  If  the  goods  are  right, 
this  is  almost  bound  to  sell  them. 

Most  particularly,  do  not  begin  a  follow-up  by 
scolding  the  reader  for  not  having  sent  you  an 
order :  '  We  sent  you  an  illustrated  pamphlet  on 
our  cure  for  baldness  last  week  and  are  surprised 
that  we  have  not  heard  from  you.  Do  you  wish 
to  lose  your  hair  beyond  hope  of  recovery  ?  '  You 
can  think  of  half  a  hundred  ways  of  starting  a  letter, 
each  more  likely  to  fetch  the  order  than  this. 

I  said  that  you  should  stop  when  you  have  given 
your  prospective  customers  something  to  do.  The 
end  of  the  letter  is  the  place  for  this  :  and  I  let  you 
into  a  little  secret  of  my  own  when  I  tell  you  that 
a  better  place  still  is  after  the  end — in  a  postscript. 
A  person  who  will  not  read  any  other  part  of  a  letter 
at  first  will  very  often  read  the  P.S.  If  you  make 
this  interesting,  and  give  him  something  to  do,  he 
will  read  the  rest,  to  see  whether  he  ought  to  do 
it.     It  is  your  fault  then  if  he  does  not  do  it. 


2o8  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

People  are  very  apt  to  believe  that  the  worst 
fault  in  a  form-letter  is  that  there  should  be  too 
much  of  it.  The  Newdigate  Prize  Poem  is  limited 
to  fifty  lines.  But  even  a  poem  can  be  too 
short.  For  a  letter  to  be  too  long  is  not  the  worst 
of  faults.  It  is  really  only  the  worst  fault  but  one. 
The  very  worst  is  not  being  long  enough.  You  re- 
member the  story  of  the  dachshund  whose  affectionate 
owner  defended  it  against  the  charge  that  its  legs 
were  too  short.  '  They  are  long  enough  to  reach 
down  to  the  ground,'  she  said.  Just  so;  a  letter 
should  be  long  enough  to  say  what  needs  to  be  said — 
no  longer,  no  shorter.  Try  to  need  as  few  words  as 
you  can,  but  use  all  that  you  do  need. 

Finally,  a  very  important  point :  if  you  have 
occasion  to  get  a  form-letter  written  for  you  by 
someone  with  more  experience  than  yourself,  don't 
employ  for  this  important  task  a  printer  who  will 
write  the  letter  for  nothing  if  only  you  will  give  him 
the  job  of  printing  it.  Any  kind  of  advertising 
effort  should  be  treated  with  a  little  more  respect 
than  that. 

In  my  concluding  Lecture  next  week  I  shall  have 
something  to  say  about  a  species  of  Advertising 
into  which  form-letters  enter  very  largely.  This 
is  the  kind  of  advertising  which  sells  goods  by 
post.  American  example  has  led  us  to  call  this 
Mail-Order  Advertising  :  and  after  that,  in  con- 
cluding these  addresses  to  which  you  have  so  patiently 
listened,  it  will  be  my  privilege  to  talk  to  you  about 
Advertising  as  a  Career — how  to  enter  the  business, 
what  qualifications  are  needed,  what  prospects  are 
offered,  and  how  one  may  expect  to  rise  fastest. 
In  this  I  hope  to  be  able  to  offer  some  practical 


THREE  MAIN  MODES  OF  ADVERTISEMENT        209 

suggestions  and  warnings,  not  unmingled  with  words 
of  hope  and  encouragement.  For  I  can  strongly 
recommend  Advertising^  as  a  pursuit.  There  are 
great  rewards  in  it,  and  when  you  win  them,  you 
have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  you  only  won 
them  by  having  deserved  to  win. 


LECTURE  VI 

Part  I. — Mail-Order  Advertising 

The  term  '  Mail-Order  ' — American  Mail-order  Advertising — Im- 
portance of  veracity — The  worst  obstacle  to  honest  mail-order 
Advertising — Selhng  technical  goods  by  mail-order  methods — 
Selling  service  by  mail-order  methods — Guaranteed  advertising — 
The  Encyclopedia  Britannica  a  mail-order  proposition — The 
Encyclopcsdia  Britannica  campaign  described — Circularising  for 
mail-order  purposes — How  to  obtain  names — How  a  mail-order 
advertisement  should  be  framed — Statistical  work  in  Mail  Order 
— Follow-up  systems — A  fallacious  follow-up — Making  the  follow- 
up  automatic. 

Part  II. — Advertising  as  a  Career 

Honest  Advertising  a  modem  invention — Growth  of  scientific  methods 
— Opportunities  for  intelligent  workers — Advertising  not  an  art — 
Advertising  a  business  easily  entered — Advertising  lavish  in 
reward,  but  merciless  in  criticism — Qualifications  of  an  advertising 
man — Training  required — How  to  obtain  training — Where  varied 
businesses  can  be  studied — Amateur  work  not  wanted — Research 
work  and  advertising  pohcy :  Examples — Research  work  on 
business  records — Influence  of  Advertising  upon  salesmanship 
and  upon  production — Openings  for  the  copywriter — How  a  copy- 
writer is  trained — How  advertising  men  advance — Administrative 
work  in  Advertising ;  the  Contract  Department — How  to  study 
Advertising — Conclusion. 

NO  branch  of  Advertising  arouses  more  wide- 
spread attention  or  awakens  the  ambition 
of  more  numerous  people  than  mail-order 
work,  which  means  selling  through  the  post.  The 
goods  do  not  necessarily  travel  by  post,  but  the  order 
comes  by  post.  The  term  mail-order  has  been 
borrowed  from  the  language  spoken  in  the  United 
States  ;  but  the  business  was  not  originally  American. 
It  was  invented  in  this  country,  but  developed  to  a 
higher  general  average  of  efficiency  in  the  United 
States.  But  we  have  at  all  events  one  mail-order 
advertiser,  my  friend  Mr.  Walter  Martin,  who  has 
carried  this  kind  of  Advertising  to  a  higher  degree 

2XO 


MAIL-ORDER  ADVERTISING  tii 

of  perfection  than  any  American  practitioner.  He 
has  somewhere  about  a  quarter  of  a  million  satisfied 
customers,  I  think ;  ^or  with  him  a  mail-order 
customer  is  not  a  one-timer  but  a  steady  buyer. 
The  organisation  of  Martins  Limited  is  a  model  of 
efficiency,  integrity,  and  liberality,  and  I  shall 
presently  tell  you  something  about  its  working — I 
was  about  to  say  by  Mr.  Martin's  permission  :  but 
there  has  been  no  need,  really,  for  me  to  ask  his 
permission,  for  he  is  the  most  candid  of  advertisers. 
He  has  nothing  to  conceal  and  conceals  nothing. 

In  mail-order  work,  even  more  than  in  other 
branches  of  Advertising,  the  most  rigid  veracity 
and  straightforwardness  are  essential  to  any  success 
worth  having.  You  are  dealing  with  persons  whom 
you  will  never  see.  The  slightest  appearance  of 
insincerity,  the  least  sign  of  exaggeration,  would 
be  fatal  to  the  confidence  by  which  alone  you  can 
live.  Everything  you  say  is  on  record.  Your 
advertising  must  look  transparently  sincere.  The 
only  way  known  to  me  of  looking  sincere  is  to  be 
sincere.  The  goods  sold  by  mail-order  must  not 
only  be  as  good  as  the  advertising ;  they  should  be 
better  than  the  advertising.  The  very  first  thing 
that  has  to  be  overcome  is  suspicion.  There  are 
people  who  think  that  you  can  insert  an  advertise- 
ment in  the  papers,  asking  people  to  send  money 
for  goods,  and  then  keep  the  money,  sending  nothing 
at  all  in  return.  It  sounds  incredible  that  anyone 
should  think  this — 'that  anyone  should  be  so  ignorant 
of  what  a  police  force  is  for,  as  to  think  that  such  a 
fraud  could  be  practised.  But  I  have  evidence  that 
there  are  people  who  think  this — or  imagine  them- 
selves to  think  it.     Many  thousands  can  hardly  be 


212  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

got  to  believe  that  an  article  offered  by  post  will  be 
as  good  as  the  description  of  it,  until,  expecting  to  be 
robbed,  they  timidly  make  trial  of  the  goods. 

No  doubt  there  are  small  traders  who  do 
exaggerate  in  mail-order  offers.  But  they  are  the 
little  fellows.  There  is  no  permanent  profit  in  that 
kind  of  work,  and  no  large  profit.  Understatement, 
for  the  sake  of  complete  credibility,  pays  a  thousand 
times  better.  From  what  I  said  just  now  you  can 
easily  deduce  the  injury  done  to  honest  mail-order 
business  by  the  semi-fraudulent  minority,  and  you 
will  not  be  surprised  to  learn  that  the  serious  mail- 
order concerns — the  honest  ones — would  be  pre- 
pared to  take  almost  any  amount  of  trouble  to  stamp 
out  the  dishonesty,  which  is  a  worse  pest  to  them 
than  to  the  deceived  customer.  The  worst  obstacle 
over  which  the  honest  mail-order  man  has  to  climb 
to  success  is  the  fraudulent  mail-order  man.  It 
would  be  false  to  pretend  that  the  latter  does  not 
exist.  We  had  far  better  acknowledge  him,  and  try 
to  stamp  him  out. 

It  is  generally  imagined  by  the  unobservant  that 
mail-order  sales  are  mostly  of  small  units,  and  that 
the  business  is  entirely  retail.  Both  these  ideas  are 
mistaken.  The  '  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,'  in  its 
last  two  editions,  was  sold  entirely  by  mail-order 
methods.  The  smallest  unit  offered  cost  £2^  ;  the 
largest  between  £60  and  £70,  I  think.  A  con- 
siderable amount  of  wholesale  business,  and  of 
business  in  materials  and  tools  used  for  purposes 
of  manufacture,  is  done  by  mail-order.  About  the 
most  important,  and  certainly  I  think  the  best 
protective  for  saving  iron  and  steel  structures 
from  rust — '  Bowranite  ' — is    sold  by  mail-order  to 


MAIL-ORDER  ADVERTISING  215 

engineers,  shipbuilders,  steamship  lines,  dock 
companies,  and  other  large  concerns.  I  can  assure 
you  from  my  personal  ^knowledge  that  the  inventor 
spares  no  pains  to  ensure  the  minute  exactness  of 
every  word  that  is  printed  about  *  Bowranite.'  If 
it  is  important  to  be  honest  where  you  are  dealing 
with  retail  customers,  it  is  obviously  indispensable 
to  be  honest  when  you  are  dealing  with  technical 
users  of  your  product. 

On  the  face  of  it,  it  would  seem  obvious  that 
merchandise  sold  through  the  post  must  either   be 
something  patented,   or  a  monopoly  of  some  sort, 
which   a   man   cannot   walk   across   the   street   and 
buy  in  a  shop.     This  is  not  the  fact.     Many  little 
inventions,  small  instruments,  toys,  conjuring  tricks 
and  so  forth  that  cannot  be  thus  bought,  are  adver- 
tised   by   small    mail-order    advertisers ;    but    even 
mail-order  goods    like    these   are  sometimes  articles 
of   general   trade.     Sometimes   they  are    not   goods 
at   all   but   services.      There  is  a  man  at  Chester — • 
of    all    places — who    does   a  very  large    business  in 
developing  roll-films    and    making   prints    of    them 
for  amateur  photographers.     His  business  is  nation- 
wide :    everyone  who  uses  a  hand-camera  knows  the 
name   of    Will    R.    Rose.     Now    the    thousands   of 
people  who  every  week  send  their  films  to  Chester 
could  with  much  less  trouble  take  them  to  a  photo- 
graphic dealer  ;    even  many  chemists  do  the  work, 
after  a  fashion.     Why  are  films  sent  to  Mr.  Rose  ? 

Well,  partly  because  he  does  not  do  the  work 
'  after  a  fashion.'  Having  a  good  deal  of  it  to  do, 
he  can  afford  perfected  appliances,  and  can  employ 
automatic  devices  which  dispense  with  a  certain 
proportion  of  skilled  labour.     And,  as  he  has  spent 


214  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

money  to  gain  a  name — by  advertising — it  is  obviously 
worth  his  while  to  do  the  work  as  well  as  the  com- 
petitive price  will  permit  :  for  the  price  is  competitive. 
The  same  things,  no  doubt,  are  true  of  others 
offering  this  service  whose  names  you  see  often  in 
the  papers — Martin,  the  Southampton  chemist,  and  a 
few  others  :  I  do  not  know  directly.  Another  thing 
which  certainly  conserves  business  for  Mr.  Rose  is 
the  neat  little  folder  in  which  he  returns  films  and 
prints,  and  the  skilful  device  by  which  he  notifies 
to  his  customers  the  faults  which  they  have  committed 
in  exposing  their  films.  This  is  a  very  clever  piece 
of  policy.  No  small  proportion  of  exposures  are 
sure  to  be  faulty :  if  the  amateur  photographer 
were  not  apprised  of  his  mistake,  he  would  blame 
the  developer.     As  it  is,  he  blames  himself. 

Another  service  has  lately  been  advertised  by 
mail-order,  which  could  just  as  easily,  or  more  easily, 
be  obtained  from  shopkeepers.  That  is  the  re- 
sharpening  of  blades  for  safety-razors.  If  you  look 
at  a  new  Gillette  blade,  you  will  see  that  this 
business  of  re-sharpening  is  making  an  impression 
upon  the  razor  people  :  it  bears  the  words  '  Licensed 
for  original  use  only  :  not  to  be  re-sharpened.'  I 
do  not  know  what  the  legal  position  about  this 
may  be.  The  patent  is  in  the  holder — the  curve 
which  bends  the  blade — not,  I  think,  in  the  blade, 
as  there  are  other  three-holed  blades.  But  person- 
ally, it  seems  to  me  that  if  the  Gillette  people  saw 
fit  to  say,  on  the  blade  or  package,  that  they  sold 
the  blades  on  condition  that  these  should  not  be 
re-ground  or  re-sharpened,  it  would  be  a  point  of 
honour  with  purchasers  to  carry  out  the  obligation. 
Words    implying    this    condition    could    be    printed 


MAIL-ORDER  ADVERTISING  115 

on  the  outer  wrapper  :  no  one  need  buy  them  if 
he  did  not  want  to  fulfil  the  condition,  whether  it 
could  be  legally  enforc^ed  or  not.  No  doubt  there 
would  be  purchasers  who  would  ignore  the  obliga- 
tion ;  but  I  believe  and  hope  that  there  would  be 
many  others  who  would  respect  it.  Let  us  think  as 
well  as  we  can  of  our  kind. 

However,  that  is  another  story.  The  fact  is 
that,  a  few  years  ago,  someone  invented  a  machine 
for  sharpening  old  blades,  and  evidently  the  machine 
does  not  cost  very  much,  for  quite  a  number  of 
persons  are  advertising,  in  mail-order  fashion,  their 
willingness  to  do  the  work  for  a  penny  a  blade. 
And  apparently  they  make  it  pay.  The  advertise- 
ments are  small — an  inch  or  less.  But  observe — 
people  will  send  their  blades  by  post,  and  pay,  now, 
threehalfpence  for  postage  to  have  this  done  by  the 
advertiser ;  yet  any  number  of  cutlers  and  iron- 
mongers undertake  the  work  at  the  same  price,  and 
have  a  card  in  the  window  to  say  so.  Thus  it  is 
evidently  not  the  fact  that  people  will  only  send  by 
post  for  something  which  cannot  be  obtained  across 
a  shop  counter. 

I  shall  presently  mention  some  much  more 
impressive  evidence  of  this.  But  before  doing  so, 
I  will  digress  for  a  moment  to  tell  you  an  amusing 
incident  of  this  razor-sharpening  industry,  because 
it  illustrates  the  modern  attitude  of  part  of  the  Press 
to  Advertising.  I  told  you  last  week  that  Mr. 
John  Hart,  the  advertisement  manager  of  London 
Opinion^  publishes  every  week  in  London  Opinion 
a  certain  guarantee.  He  undertakes  that  if  anything 
advertised  in  the  paper  is  misrepresented,  either 
the  advertiser  will  send  the  money  back,  or  London 


2i6  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

Opinion  will  do  so.  Of  course,  this  applies  to  all 
the  advertisements,  not  to  mail-order  announcements 
only. 

Well,  London  Opinion  carried  a  razor-sharpening 
advertisement  of  a  man  in  Sheffield — a  good  town 
in  which  to  have  an  address  for  this  particular 
business  of  sharpening  razors.  Presently  someone 
wrote  to  Mr.  Hart,  stating,  first  that  he  had  sent 
blades  to  this  man,  and  the  money,  and  had  received 
neither  acknowledgment  nor  blades  ;  and  secondly, 
that  he  had  reported  this  to  the  police.  The  police 
had  replied  that  the  man  was  not  known  to  them ; 
but  that  as  the  address  was  that  of  a  butcher's  shop, 
there  might  perhaps  have  been  some  mistake. 
Apparently  the  police  went  no  further  ;  or  perhaps 
their  investigations  were  still  incomplete. 

However  this  may  be,  Mr.  Hart,  like  the  fair 
and  liberal-minded  gentleman  that  he  is,  promptly 
sent  his  correspondent  a  dozen  new  Gillette  blades, 
thus  completely  vindicating  London  Opinion.  And 
then  he  wrote  to  the  advertiser,  and  wrote — I  make 
no  doubt,  for  I  know  him — in  good  set  terms  !  The 
advertiser  replied,  that  if  the  policeman  had  taken 
the  trouble  to  walk  upstairs,  he  would  have  found 
him,  the  advertiser,  on  the  job.  It  was  quite  true 
that  his  landlord  was  a  butcher,  but  he  did  not 
butch  except  on  the  ground  floor.  And  for  the  rest, 
he  would  be  very  glad  to  see  the  letter  of  complaint, 
as  he  had  several  grosses  of  blades  in  his  possession, 
with  corresponding  remittances,  which  people,  to 
an  equal  number  of  dozens,  had  sent  him,  without 
enclosing  any  name  or  address.  He  said  that  he 
would  be  very  glad  if  Mr.  Hart  could  introduce  him 
to  a  way  of  teaching  people  to  be  a  little  more  careful 


MAIL-ORDER  ADVERTISING  217 

with  their  money  and  their  blades,  for  this  kind  of 
mistake  gave  him  a  lot  of  trouble. 

The  greatest  single  jjiail-order  transaction  ever 
carried  out  in  this  country  was,  indeed,  in  something 
which  could  not  be  bought  in  shops.  It  is  an  example 
which  proves  the  economy  of  Advertising.  The 
'  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  '  had  been  published  eight 
times,  in  eight  several  and  successive  editions,  during 
a  little  over  a  century.  The  price,  at  all  events  of 
the  ninth  edition,  was  somewhere  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  fifty  guineas.  An  American,  my  friend, 
Mr.  H.  E.  Hooper,  bought  the  copyright  from  the 
owners,  the  very  old-established  and  eminent  firm 
of  Adam  &  Charles  Black — the  friends  of  Macaiilay  : 
Adam  Black  was  instrumental  in  his  re-election  for 
Edinburgh,  the  last  time  that  he  entered  Parliament. 
Mr.  Hooper  acquired  the  stereotyped  plates,  and 
reprinted  the  ninth  edition,  about  two  years  after 
its  first  completion,  making  twenty-five  volumes. 
He  also  made  an  arrangement  by  which  7he  Times 
became  the  publisher.  These  twenty-five  volumes 
had  had  a  very  limited  sale  for  about  fifty  guineas 
cash.  Evidently  the  publishers — Messrs.  Black — 
had  not  had  a  very  great  encouragement  with  them, 
as  sold  through  booksellers,  or  they  would  not  have 
parted  with  a  property  so  stately  and  so  celebrated. 

Mr.  Hooper  believed  that  the  demand  was  not, 
even  yet,  exhausted.  He  believed  that  advertising, 
and  exceptional  facilities  for  buying  this  great  work, 
could  sell  more.  He  also  believed,  as  no  full- 
scale  encyclopaedia  had  appeared  since  this  edition, 
that  it  was  worth  buying  ;  but  he  realised  that  it 
would  require  a  strong  selling  effort.  So  what  did 
he  do  ?     He  cut  the  price  in  half — to  about  ^^25  for 


2i8  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

the  cloth-bound  edition  ;  more  for  richer  bindings. 
And  he  did  more.  He  may  be  called  the  pioneer,  or 
almost  the  discoverer  of  a  principle  that  has  since 
greatly  extended  the  business  of  Advertising.  He 
believed,  and  by  this  experiment  proved,  that 
nearly  all  people  are  honest.  He  believed  that  he 
could  trust  the  public  with  this  set  of  books,  worth 
from  ^25  to  {60  according  to  binding,  without 
sureties,  without  any  guarantee,  and  let  them  pay 
for  it  by  monthly  instalments.  He  was  right.  No 
one  else  believed  him  to  be  right.  The  late  A.  F. 
Walter,  of  l^he  Times,  and  the  late  Moberly 
Bell,  Mr.  Walter's  wonderful  right-hand  man,  and 
Mr.  Buckle,  then  editor  of  The  Times,  thought  he 
was  wrong.  They  begged  him  not  to  take  this  risk. 
They  thought  that  readers  of  The  Times  would  pay 
the  instalm.ents,  because  readers  of  The  Times  were 
then  a  special  and  restricted  class.  But  Mr.  Hooper 
was  going  to  advertise  in  the  general  press,  and 
they  did  not  believe  that  it  was  safe  to  trust  the 
public  at  large  in  the  general  and  haphazard  manner 
proposed  and  adopted.  Also,  they  did  not  believe 
that  the  Encyclopaedia  would  sell  in  large  numbers. 
They  thought  he  might,  with  a  great  deal  of  adver- 
tising, sell  5000  sets  in  this  way ;  though  he  would 
make  many  bad  debts.  Mr.  Hooper  thought  other- 
wise. He  thought  he  could  sell  20,000  or  30,000  sets, 
and  get  the  money. 

He  was  right — more  than  right.  He  sold  70,000 
sets  ;  and  he  got  the  money.  And,  while  this  was 
going  on,  he  had  ten  additional  volumes  prepared 
by  a  superb  staff  of  editors,  scholars  and  experts, 
to  bring  this  Encyclopaedia  up  to  date,  and  with 
the  twenty-five  old  volumes  turn  the  ninth  edition 


MAIL-ORDER  ADVERTISING  219 

into  the  tenth  ;  and  he  had  no  more  difficulty  in 
selling  the  ten  additional  volumes  to  the  purchasers  of 
the  other  twenty-five  thai^he  had  in  selling  the  latter. 

It  was  all  done  by  mail-order  work.  And  I  have 
dwelt  thus  long  upon  it,  partly  because  I  happen 
to  know  this  selling  campaign  rather  more  intimately 
than  I  know  any  other  very  large  mail-order  trans- 
action, and  partly  because,  through  the  complete- 
ness of  its  ramifications,  it  constitutes  a  typical 
example  of  mail-order  work.  I  wanted  you  to  know 
the  origin  of  the  business,  and  the  personality — 
the  great  personality — behind  it,  because  I  am 
going  to  use  it  for  a  type  of  mail-order  work. 

Much  later — years  after  the  last  set  of  the  thirty- 
five  volumes  forming  the  complete  tenth  edition  of 
the  'Encyclopaedia  Britannica'  had  been  sold  and 
paid  for,  and  when  the  eleventh  edition  was  nearly 
ready  for  the  press — circumstances  arose  which  caused 
certain  persons  to  organise  an  attack  on  the  Encyclo- 
paedia, which  undoubtedly  did  much  harm  to  its 
future.  I  am  not  going  into  these  circumstances 
to-night.  There  is  not  time.  But  as  I  saw  some 
of  you  smile  when  I  mentioned  the  Encyclopaedia, 
and  as  I  know  the  attacks  which  I  have  mentioned 
have  left  a  bad  impression  upon  many  people's  minds, 
it  would  not  only  be  cowardly  in  me  not  to  tell  you 
what  I  think  on  the  matter,  but  would  also  detract 
from  the  value  of  the  illustration  which  I  am  going 
to  found  upon  it.  The  substance  of  the  attack  was 
mainly  this — that  the  '  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,'  as 
published  in  l^he  Times  Office,  was  obsolete  (as  one 
of  the  numerous  assailants  organised  against  The 
Times  remarked,  Stanley  was  still  in  the  wilds  of 
Africa  looking  for  Livingstone)  ;    and,  alternatively. 


220  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

that  the  book  had  been  misrepresented  by  the  adver- 
tisements. I  only  detain  you  to  say,  first,  that  those 
who  attacked  the  Encyclopaedia  in  order  to  attack 
7 he  Times  knew  perfectly  well  that  a  big  work  of 
reference  like  this  necessarily  begins  to  become  obso- 
lete from  the  moment  of  publication — nay,  while  it  is 
still  in  the  press — and  second,  that  when  I  bought 
the  eleventh  edition,  which  I  certainly  use  once  or 
more  on  the  average  every  day,  I  could  have  obtained 
an  allowance  of  about  ^^5  (I  think  it  was)  by  returning 
the  old  volumes.  I  preferred  to  keep,  and  still 
frequently  use  them.^ 

Now,  at  long  last,  I  will  come  to  business.  The 
basis  and  life-blood  of  a  great  mail-order  campaign 
is  Press  advertising.  But  it  is  not  Press  advertising 
that  sells  the  goods.  It  very  seldom  happens  that 
the  orders  which  pay  the  bill  and  provide  the  profit 
can  be  obtained  by  this  medium  alone.  I  mean, 
that  you  cannot  induce  people  to  send  the  money  in 
direct  response  to  newspaper  advertising.  The  func- 
tion of  the  Press  advertisements  is  to  make  the  public 
write  to  you — applying  for  a  pamphlet  or  a  sample, 
or  perhaps  making  some  small  purchase.  Thus  you 
obtain  a  list  of  names — names  of  people  who  have 
made  some  approach  to  you.  This  is  called,  still 
showing  American  influence,  a  mailing  list.  To  this 
list  you  send  the  printed  matter  and  letters  which 
ultimately  sell  the  goods.  It  is  the  same  thing, 
whether  you  are  trying  to  find  a  list  of  persons  who 
will  buy  one  product,  or  a  list  of  persons  to  whom  you 

^  The  quarrel,  now  fortunately  forgotten,  has  now  long  been  happily 
composed.  Its  most  brilHant  incident  was  Mr.  Bernard  Shaw's  joyous 
advocacy  of  The  Times,  in  a  series  of  letters  to  that  paper.  I  should 
be  sorry  to  write  any  word  to  recall  the  bitterness  of  a  controversy 
which  left  both  sides — and  I  played  a  small  part  on  one — with  errors 
of  temper  and  taste  to  regret. 


MAIL-ORDER  ADVERTISING  221 

can  sell  selections  from  a  variety  of  goods.  The 
procedure  is  the  same,  either  way.  You  follow  them 
up,  as  the  phrase  runs,  a^.long  as  a  sufficient  propor- 
tion will  respond  to  give  paying  results. 

Thus,  mail-order  advertising  of  a  serious  kind  is 
really  a  use  of  what  I  called  last  week  the  third  main 
mode  of  advertising — printed  matter  delivered  direct 
to  the  prospective  customer.  But  mark  the  impor- 
tant difference  between  addressing  persons  who  are 
total  strangers  whose  names  you  have  procured 
from  directories  of  one  kind  or  another,  or  from 
selected  lists — as  a  list  of  motor-car  owners,  or  a  list 
of  persons  who  have  contributed  to  charities,  and  so 
forth — and  addressing  persons  who  have  shown  some 
interest  in  you.  Selected  lists,  such  as  I  have 
illustrated  by  examples,  are  a  recognised  commercial 
implement ;  they  can  be  bought  at  a  price,  or  you 
can  contract  with  concerns,  such  as  the  Reliable 
Addressing  Agency,  Limited,  to  address  envelopes 
from  lists  in  the  addressing  firm's  possession.  As 
these  lists  are  kept  up  to  date,  and  cleared  of  removals, 
&c.,  they  have  advantages,  and  I  am  far  from  saying 
that  they  are  not  useful — if  you  cannot  compile  a 
list  of  what  are  called  in  the  mail-order  business 
*  live  prospects.' 

But  I  will  tell  you  something  which  shows  the 
difference.  A  friend  of  mine,  who  does  one  of  the 
largest  mail-order  businesses  in  the  world,  often 
meets  at  lunch  another  mail-order  man,  trading  in 
goods  consumed  by  exactly  the  same  class  of  buyers. 
Each  of  them  obtains  new  names  by  Press  advertising. 
Each  of  them  sells  good  wares,  and  can  always  do  a 
profitable  amount  of  business  by  sending  a  catalogue 
to  the  whole  list  of  past  buyers. 


222  COMMERCIAL    ADVERTISING 

These  two  mail-order  men  had  the  happy  idea — 
as  it  seemed — of  exchanging  lists.  Every  name  in 
the  list  of  either  was  a  prospect  for  the  other.  Many 
names  occurred,  as  it  turned  out,  on  both.  For  of 
course  the  names  were  on  index-cards,  and  the  cards 
were  collated,  to  throw  out  duplicates. 

But  the  exchange  gave  very  poor  results.  The 
exchanged  names  were  of  so  little  use  that  each  of  the 
men  could  have  spent  the  money  to  better  advantage 
by  circularising  his  own  customers,  even,  probably, 
if  he  gave  these  an  extra  postal  shot,  out  of  season. 
(For,  of  course,  there  is  a  limit  to  this  sort  of  thing. 
Experiments  have  to  be  made,  to  discover  how 
often  a  list  will  respond  to  treatment.) 

What  was  the  reason  for  the  failure  ?  You  will 
have  inferred  it  from  what  I  said  before.  Every 
name  on  each  man's  list  was  a  prospect  for  the  other 
man  ;   but  a  live  prospect  for  himself  only. 

On  the  same  principle,  the  object  of  the  '  Encyclo- 
paedia Britannica  '  advertisements — the  policy  behind 
them — was  to  obtain  a  list  of  live  prospects.  But 
/[  must  reveal  to  you  another  practical  detail  of 
mail-order  Advertising.  This  is  one  that  could  not 
have  been  divined,  I  think,  a  priori — by  a  deduction 
from  theoretical  principles.  It  has  had  to  be  found 
by  induction  from  experience  of  facts  :  all  successful 
mail-order  business  is  based  upon  close  scrutiny  of 
results.  The  principle  to  which  I  have  referred  is 
this  :  in  writing  mail-order  advertisements,  however 
fully  you  realise  that  your  object  is  to  obtain  names, 
not  sales,  you  must  nevertheless  advertise  as  though 
you  were  trying  to  make  sales.  It  seems  to  be  an 
established  principle,  that  you  will  not  obtain  results 
at  an  economical  outlay  if  you  advertise  mainly  the 


MAIL-ORDER  ADVERTISING  223 

pamphlet,  or  catalogue,  or  sample.  You  must  offer 
these  as  a  sort  of  secondary  object ;  but  devote  the 
main  body  of  the  advertisement  to  the  goods. 

I  think  there  are  explanations  of  this — now  that 
it  has  been  discovered.  One  is,  that  unless  you  are 
advertising  a  tangible  object,  the  advertisement  is 
not  taken  seriously.  People  will  not  write  for  the 
prospectus  or  pamphlet  offered  unless  they  really 
contemplate  buying  the  goods.  That  is  a  very  good 
thing  for  the  mail-order  business.  Otherwise,  much 
money  would  be  wasted  in  following  up  useless  names. 
Indeed  it  is  possible  to  build  up  too  good  a  case  for 
the  pamphlet,  so  that  persons  will  write  for  it  who 
never  could  buy  the  goods  it  advertises.  Another 
explanation  of  the  necessity  for  advertising  the 
goods,  not  the  pamphlet,  is,  that  people  who  show 
by  their  action  in  applying  for  a  pamphlet  that  they 
are  serious  readers  of  advertising  will  not  buy  the 
goods  unless  the  goods  themselves  have  the  weight 
and  authority  of  Advertising  behind  them. 

I  am  getting  along  rather  slowly,  but  that  is 
because  I  am  only  using  the  '  Encyclopaedia 
Britannica '  campaign  to  illustrate  mail-order  prin- 
ciples, and  have  never  hesitated  to  turn  aside  from 
it  to  discuss  the  principles  themselves.  I  have  said 
that  the  object  was  to  obtain  a  list  of  names.  It 
was  done  by  means  of  newspaper  advertisements 
of  very  extraordinary  merit,  written  by  the  greatest 
literary  genius  who  ever  adopted  Advertising  as  a 
career,  my  friend  Mr.  H.  R.  Haxton,  and  directed 
by  the  greatest  director  of  Advertising  that  I  have 
known,  Mr.  Hooper.  They  advertised  the  *  Encyclo- 
paedia,' acting  on  the  principle  enunciated  a  moment 
ago  when    I    said   that    mail-order    advertisements 


224  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

should  advertise  the  goods.  That  they  did  so  with 
success  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  they  sold  thousands 
of  sets  direct — straight  off  the  advertisements.  But 
they  also  caused  a  very  large  number  of  persons 
to  write  for  a  descriptive  booklet — what  a  glorious 
descriptive  booklet  it  was  !  To  have  let  the  adver- 
tisements reveal  what  a  line  booklet  it  was  would 
have  been  fatal.  There  would  have  been  altogether 
too  many  '  curiosity  applications '  as  they  are  called. 
The  whole  gang  of  something-for-nothing-merchants 
would  have  been  after  it.  The  book  had  stout 
cardboard  sides  and  a  linen  back  ;  the  pages  were 
of  the  same  size  as  the  '  Encyclopaedia  '  itself — and 
there  were  about  two  hundred  of  them.  It  was 
superbly  written  and  was  printed  in  colour.  It 
contained  several  maps,  numerous  full-page  illustra- 
tions, and  a  number  of  extracts  from  the  work, 
most  subtly  and  carefully  chosen,  to  interest  the 
largest  possible  number  of  persons,  having  different 
tastes ;  and  they  were  selected  in  a  manner  cal- 
culated to  whet  the  appetite  of  the  reader. 

One  thing  that  I  am  going  to  illustrate  by  this 
campaign  is  the  fact  that  it  is  highly  important  for 
a  mail-order  man  to  obtain  action  quickly.  Som.e- 
thing  like  twelve  different  pieces  of  postal  advertising 
were  sent  to  the  applicants  for  this  *  Encyclopaedia  ' 
prospectus.  The  prospectus  cost  something  more 
than  four  shillings  a  copy,  if  my  memory  serves  me, 
merely  to  print ;  and  it  cost  sixpence  a  copy  to  post. 
Why  was  it  made  so  lavish — why  so  costly  ?  In 
order  to  cut  off  the  mailing-list  as  many  names  as 
possible  by  selling  the  goods  at  the  first  shot — and 
save  the  follow-ups.  It  is  likely  that  none  of  the 
follow-up  shots    cost  less  than  sixpence  a  copy  to 


MAIL-ORDER  ADVERTISING  225 

print  and  post :  some  certainly  cost  more.  I  am 
saying  nothing  at  all  about  the  cost  of  preparing 
them — 'but  a  considerable  staff  of  very  highly-paid 
men;  from  about  3^1000  a  year  to  3^4000  was  paid — 
but  only  about  the  mechanical  expense.  I  do  not 
know,  and  should  have  no  right  to  reveal  if  I  did 
know,  the  number  of  applications  received,  first  and 
last,  for  the  prospectus.  But  I  can  tell  you,  because 
the  fact  has  been  published,  that  70,000  sets  of  the 
^  Encyclopaedia  '  were  sold.  It  would  be  an  extra- 
ordinarily high  proportion — an  unknown  proportion, 
I  should  say — of  sales  to  inquiries  if  one  applicant 
out  of  three  ultimately  purchased  the  volumes. 
Put  it  at  that  and  you  have  210,000 — say  200,000 
for  the  sake  of  working  in  round  figures,  in  figures 
of  very  great  rotundity  in  fact — and  you  can  see 
how  important  it  was  to  effect  the  sale  early.  To 
send  out  200,000  follow-ups  costing  an  average  of 
sixpence  each,  the  figure  I  set  for  the  minimum y 
costs  3^5000  :  and  about  twelve  follow-ups  were 
going.  Every  time  an  address  came  off  the  lists,  the 
remainder  of  the  follow-up  was  saved.  If  the  whole 
200,000  went  the  whole  journey,  the  expense  would 
be  ^60,000. 

Therefore  it  was  worth  while  to  take  great  pains 
with  each  shot.  It  was  worth  while  to  spend  money 
to  make  each  shot  as  efficient  as  possible.  This 
brings  me  to  the  important  and  complex  subject 
of  records.  An  efficient  mail-order  manager  tests 
everything.  A  new  shot  will  be  tried  on  a  limited, 
a  reduced  list.  The  correspondence  will  be  looked 
at  with  microscopic  care  for  indications  of  what,  in 
particular,  fetches  a  reply.  Every  advertisement  in 
every  newspaper  will  have  a  key,  open  or  concealed, 


226  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

that  the  replies  which  it  produces  may  be  traced. 
If  an  inquiry-form,  cut  from  the  newspaper,  comes 
back,  it  has  a  figure  on  it.  The  street-number 
in  the  address  can  be  varied,  by  arrangement  with 
the  Post  OflB.ce.  There  are  other  and  more  subtle 
ways  in  which  replies  can  be  traced  by  a  clever 
letter-clerk.  The  proportion  of  untraced  inquiries  is 
small. 

Every  newspaper  is  credited,  not  only  with  the 
initial  inquiry  which  it  produces,  but  with  the 
ultimate  sale.  This  is  common  to  all  mail-order 
businesses  that  are  properly  organised.  I  have 
deserted  the  '  Encyclopaedia  '  now,  to  discuss  general 
principles.  Some  firms  also  analyse  sales,  on  the 
index-card  which  credits  the  newspaper,  in  such  a 
way  as  to  show  at  what  stage  of  following-up  the 
sale  arrived.  Such  information  is  valuable.  A  news- 
paper or  other  periodical  may  fetch  replies  very 
freely ;  but  the  inquiries  may  not  be  of  the  right 
class.  Much  money  v/ill  be  spent  on  them  and 
few  orders  will  come.  Readers  of  some  papers 
may  respond  much  more  easily  to  following-up  than 
others.  I  do  not  know  why ;  but  the  fact  is  as  I  have 
stated  it.  Knowledge  of  all  this  assists  the  general 
manager  in  allotting  his  advertising  appropriation. 

Besides  the  newspapers,  the  several  follow-ups 
have  each  a  card,  to  show  what  sales  they  produced. 
This  may  not  seem  to  be  of  much  immediate  use. 
Before  the  card  is  filled  the  shot  has  gone  out.  But 
it  is  invaluable  for  future  use.  A  particular  form  of 
letter  or  enclosure  may  prove  a  strong  seller,  and 
its  style  can  be  used  again  ;  or  it  may  prove  a  '  dud  ' 
and  the  manner  used  in  it  can  be  eschewed. 

Inventing  follow-up  schemes — I   mean  by  that, 


MAIL-ORDER  ADVERTISING  227 

setting  the  policy  for  successive  elements — is  a  very 
intricate  business,  requiring  great  knowledge  of 
human  nature,  much  ingenuity,  much  imagination 
and  insight.  The  policy  may  change,  from  one 
shot  to  another,  because  you  may  have  found  the 
argument  which  sells  the  goods  to  one  section  of  the 
public,  and  sold  them  to  all  that  section.  But  as 
you  work  at  arm's  length,  never  seeing  a  customer 
face  to  face,  you  cannot  know  this.  You  can  only  con- 
jecture it  by  the  fact  that  arguments  once  successful 
no  longer  bring  results.  Then  you  may  change  the 
appeal  and  fetch  in  a  wholly  new  public.  I  remember 
one  publisher  of  books  on  the  instalment  plan  who 
was  selling  a  book  of  the  extremely  popular  type — 
rather  an  illiterate  kind  of  literature ;  for  many  people 
who  buy  and  even  read  books  are  very  illiterate. 
At  one  stage  of  the  follow-up,  the  stage  where  he 
was  showing  coloured  pictures  of  the  set  of  volumes, 
with  the  gilt  lettering  well  in  evidence — he  introduced 
the  curious  argument  that  the  books  were  such  an 
ornament  to  the  house  that  they  were  worth  having 
for  this  alone.  They  gave  more  dignity  to  a  room 
(he  said)  than  a  piano  !  Of  course,  he  was  selling 
to  poor  people.  It  is  a  fact  that  this  shot  did  very 
well.  They  wanted  books  that  gave  more  dignity 
to  the  room  than  a  piano  ! 

The  follow-up  should,  if  possible,  make  a  new 
offer,  at  some  stage.  You  must  keep  faith  with  your 
public,  however.  You  must  not  reduce  the  price. 
The  first  buyers  have  a  right  to  obtain  the  goods 
on  as  good  terms  as  the  last  buyers.  If  you  announce 
a  temporary  reduction,  it  must  be  announced  at 
the  beginning.  To  put  the  thing  alliteratively, 
you   must    not   penalise    prompt    purchasers.     And 


228  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

when  you  set  a  time  to  close  a  temporary-reduction 
offer,  you  must  stick  to  that  time  like  a  plaster ! 
Otherwise  your  follow-ups  will  lose  efficiency  at  a 
great  rate.  The  people  will  never  believe  you  again. 
The  utmost  limit  to  which  you  may  go,  perhaps,  is 
to  extend  the  time  over  which  a  purchase  by  instal- 
ments can  be  spread  :  and  even  this  is  a  little  doubtful. 

But  you  may  introduce  as  often  as  your  resources 
or  your  ingenuity  may  permit,  new  devices  for 
recommending  the  goods.  I  will  mention  only  two, 
used  in  the  '  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  '  campaign, 
and  then  I  shall  have  done  with  that  affair.  One 
was  an  offer  to  send  the  Encyclopaedia — worth 
from  £25  to  3^60 — for  inspection,  on  approval.  No 
deposit  was  asked.  No  conditions  were  attached. 
The  publisher  paid  carriage  both  ways,  if  the  books 
came  back. 

The  other  device  was  more  complicated.  It  was 
an  examination  scheme,  for  very  substantial  prizes. 
The  first  prize  was  a  University  scholarship,  or, 
alternatively,  a  cheque  for  ^fiooo  ;  and  there  were 
numbers  of  other  prizes.  The  questions  were  all 
based  on  the  Encyclopaedia.  The  answers  to  them 
could  all  be  found  in  it,  and  they  had  to  be  supported 
by  references  to  chapter  and  verse,  volume  and 
page.  But  that  was  not  all.  It  was  not  necessary 
to  buy  the  Encyclopaedia  in  order  to  enter  the 
examination,  which  consisted  of  three  papers,  with  a 
monthly  interval.  For  a  small  sum  the  volumes 
would  be  lent,  with  a  bookcase  to  hold  them,  for 
the  necessary  three  months ;  and  if  they  were 
ultimately  kept,  the  sum  paid  was  deducted  from 
the  price.  I  may  say  that  it  was  deducted  pretty 
often :    very   few   sets   came   back.     You   may   be 


MAIL-ORDER  ADVERTISING  229 

interested  to  know  that  the  winner  of  the  first  prize 
took  the  thousand  pounds  ;  he  did  not  go  to  the 
University.  Quite  in  ancHher  connection — quite  apart 
from  ^he  Times,  I  mean — I  happened  to  meet  him. 
He  was  a  very  bright  young  man.  And  he  had  to 
be,  to  answer  the  questions. 

I  have  done  with  the  *  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  ' 
now.  It  has  served  to  illustrate  a  good  many 
principles,  and  also  to  exhaust  more  of  my  time  than 
could  be  wished.  Smaller  mail-order  businesses  do 
not  always  follow  the  rules,  and  some  of  them  do 
rather  funny  things — particularly  those  that  sell 
medicines  for  either  increasing  or  reducing  the  girth 
of  the  human  equator,  or  various  beauty  treatments. 
This  kind  of  mail-order  selling,  I  am  glad  to  say, 
is  on  its  last  legs.  I  hope  it  will  soon  disappear. 
These  people  have  no  scruple  about  penalising  the 
early  buyer.  If  you  will  not  pay  a  pound  you  can 
have  the  treatment  for  fifteen  shillings.  But  1  do 
remember  one  concern  whose  follow-up  I  investigated 
as  a  curiosity-inquirer,  in  the  temporary  character 
of  '  Miss  Russell.'  It  was  a  complexion  producer. 
The  first  letter,  very  vilely  produced,  and  not  looking 
in  the  least  like  an  individual  piece  of  typewriting, 
addressed  me  familiarly  as  '  Dear  Miss  Russell.' 
This  affectionate  salutation  did  not  match  the  rest. 
It  did  not  even  try  to.  The  letter  was  signed  with 
a  rubber  stamp  by  the  lady  who  said  she  was  the 
manageress.  She  was  so  interested  in  dear  Miss 
Russell's  letter  that  she  had  set  aside  one  of  the 
limited  number  of  treatments  which  she  was  allowed 
to  offer  at  the  specially  reduced  price,  and  put 
Miss  Russell's  name  on  it,  so  that  the  moment  the 
money  arrived,  the  parcel  might  go  forth  without 


230  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

delay.  And  it  cost  so  little.  Only  ^2  for  all  that 
loveliness  !  Later  on,  after  the  price  had  come 
down  in  successive  follow-ups  to  (I  think)  half  a 
sovereign  (with  the  condition  that  I  should  exhibit 
my  improved  appearance  to  my  friends  and  tell 
them  how  I  grew  so  good  to  look  upon),  a  fresh 
personality  appeared  on  the  scene.  This  was  the 
manageress's  secretary.  The  manageress  had  gone 
away  for  a  brief  holiday.  On  her  desk  was  a  parcel 
addressed  to  Miss  Russell.  There  were  no  instructions 
to  forward  it.  In  fact  the  only  memorandum  about 
it  that  could  be  discovered  was  a  note  that  Miss 
Russell  was  not  on  any  account  to  be  charged  more 
than  ten  shillings,  which  puzzled  the  secretary, 
because,  of  course,  the  proper  price  was  I2.  Would 
I  send  the  ten  shillings,  therefore,  and  enable  her 
to  make  the  manageress's  desk  nice  and  tidy  by  the 
time  she  returned,  refreshed,  to  the  business  of 
distributing  pulchritude  by  post  ?  All  this  was 
produced  by  what  was  palpably  a  duplicating  process, 
adapted  for  turning  out  large  numbers  of  the  letter 
at  low  expense  and  high  speed. 

That  kind  of  thing  is  so  silly,  so  palpably  dis- 
honest, as  to  dig  its  own  grave.  The  serious  mail- 
order people,  as  I  have  told  you,  would  be  glad  to 
attend  the  funeral,  and  even  pay  the  undertaker. 
It  is  a  blot  on  an  honourable  business.  I  only 
describe  it,  as  an  example  of  a  state  of  things  which 
is  fortunately  becoming  obsolete.  I  will  place  beside 
it  an  incident  which  is  pleasanter  to  contemplate. 
An  advertising  agent  of  my  acquaintance  had  a 
mail-order  client  whose  transactions  yielded  to  the 
agency  a  fine  profit  every  year.  The  mail-order 
man  did  what  is  called  a  merchandising  business  ; 


MAIL-ORDER  ADVERTISING  231 

he  bought  his  goods  from  manufactories  and  sold 
them  at  a  profit,  just  as  a  shopkeeper  buys  and 
sells  his  stock.  This  is  ^  perfectly  legitimate  and 
useful  business.  But  this  man  presently  did  some- 
thing more.  He  was,  I  may  say,  advertising  some- 
thing rather  cheap,  as  a  bargain,  and  when  it  was  sold 
he  sent  with  it  a  catalogue.  All  the  business  that 
made  his  profit  was  done  in  goods  ordered  from  the 
catalogue.  But  the  bargain  must  have  shown  good 
quality,  and  been  honest  value.  Otherwise  the 
catalogue  would  not  have  done  him  any  good.  Where 
this  mail-order  move  overstepped  the  mark  was  in 
this  catalogue.  Suffering  from  excess  of  zeal,  his 
advertising  manager  procured  a  picture  of  the  works 
where  some  of  the  goods  were  made — perhaps  all 
of  them  :  I  am  not  sure — and  inserted  it  in  the 
catalogue  with  the  words  '  Our  factory.'  As  soon 
as  the  advertising  agent  became  aware  of  this — 
as  soon  as  he  knew  that  he  had  been  employed  to 
advertise  a  catalogue  containing  a  false  statement, 
even  possibly  of  a  rather  pale  colour,  a  white  lie, 
if  any  lie  is  any  colour  but  black — he  informed  the 
advertiser  that  he  must  either  withdraw  the  catalogue 
or  take  his  business  somewhere  else.  And  I  will 
add — what  is  honourable  to  both  parties  in  the 
transaction — that  the  catalogue  was  withdrawn.  I 
hope  you  will  remember  this-  when  you  hear  people 
say  hard  things  about  Advertising. 

Before  leaving  the  subject,  I  just  want  to  describe 
briefly,  with  another  example,  one  feature  of  mail- 
order business.  Not  all  mail-order  work  is  designed 
to  sell  merely  one  product,  like  the  '  Encyclopaedia 
Britannica,'  or  like  the  rustless  knives  so  much 
advertised  since  the  Armistice  released  chrome  steel 


232  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

for  civilian  use.  There  will  not  be  time  to  discuss 
the  mail-order  trade  in  technical  products.  But 
I  do  want  to  speak  of  selling  continuous  supplies  of 
commodities  which  are  consumed. 

This  is  a  totally  different  business  from  selling 
a  specialty.  When  you  first  obtain  a  new  customer 
by  press  advertising,  you  do  indeed  follow  him  up. 
But  it  is  even  then  a  follow-up  with  a  difference. 
And  afterwards,  when  you  have  gained  your  customer, 
you  must  find  out  just  how  often  he  will  reward  your 
assiduity  if  you  remind  him  of  yourself.  This  is 
a  matter  for  experiment,  like  all  the  other  things  in 
mail-order  selling,  and  I  need  not  dwell  upon  it.  I 
want  to  take  you  through  the  initial  capture  of  the 
customer. 

He  responds  to  a  newspaper  advertisement.  He 
sends  for  some  catalogue,  or  sample,  or  bargain  that 
you  have  offered.  Then  he  is  given  a  follow-up 
treatment.  If  he  does  not  respond,  but  comes  to 
the  end  of  the  series,  it  is  all  plain  sailing.  But 
suppose  he  buys  something  ? 

That  is  a  new  problem.  He  is  not  yet  a  regular 
purchaser.  At  least  you  do  not  know  that  he  is 
going  to  be.  The  rest  of  the  follow-up  is  of  no  use 
to  him.  It  seems  as  though  a  staff  of  corresponding 
clerks — dictators  and  stenographers — would  be  needed 
to  take  care  of  so  complex  a  series.  But  it  can  be 
made  automatic.  I  think  I  had  better  come  at 
once  to  the  promised  example — the  example  twice 
promised,  for  it  is  that  of  Martins  Limited,  the 
largest  mail-order  tobacco  firm  in  the  world.  Their 
main  business  is,  of  course,  in  cigars. 

The  feature  of  the  business  that  I  want  to  describe 
is  the  way  in  which  individual  letter-writing  is  cut  out. 


MAIL-ORDER  ADVERTISING  233 

Mr.  Martin  told  me  some  time  ago  that  he  had  300 
form-letters  in  stock,  and  that  very  few  things  that  a 
customer  or  a  prospects  could  do  to  him  were  not 
provided  for. 

The  easiest  way  to  represent  what  happens  would 
be  a  chart,  something  like  a  genealogical  tree,  or 
perhaps  it  is  better  to  liken  it  to  a  garden  tree  in 
the  winter.  The  main  stem  would  represent  the 
general  follow-up  sent  to  an  inquirer  who  never 
ordered  at  all — a  failure.  The  principal  branches 
would  represent  the  various  ways  in  which  a  new 
inquirer  might  respond.  The  smaller  branches 
from  the  main  branches,  and  finally  the  twigs,  would 
represent  the  subsequent  transactions,  or  rather, 
all  along,  the  kind  of  following-up  produced  by  all 
of  them. 

The  moment  a  man  who  has  made  a  previous 
inquiry  orders  something,  the  card  with  his  name  and 
address  is  taken  out  of  its  box,  marked  with  the  pur- 
chase, and  placed  in  another  box,  bearing  the  date 
when  a  follow-up,  determined  by  the  exact  character 
of  his  purchase,  will  be  due.  Another  card,  bearing 
only  his  name  and  address — a  guide  card  that  never 
moves — is  marked  in  a  way  that  indicates  whither 
the  moving  card  has  gone.  If  the  man  orders  a 
second  time,  or  writes  a  letter,  his  card  is  unfailingly 
traced  and  properly  marked  ;  and  he  will  receive 
a  standard  answer,  if  he  has  done  any  of  300  things 
— the  300  things  that  are  found  by  experience  to 
happen  most  often.  Thus  it  is  as  nearly  automatic 
as  anything  of  this  kind  can  be.  But  is  it  cold, 
formal,  red-tapey  ? 

It  is  not.  I  have  been  able  to  tell  you  in  a  few 
words  how  the   perfect   mechanism  of  the  Martin 


234  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

business  operates.  But  I  could  not  tell  you  in  a 
few  hours  of  all  the  care,  all  the  thought,  all  the 
real  good-feeling  that  go  into  the  making  of  those 
letters.  Mr.  Martin  has  some  very  able  men  on  his 
staff ;  but  as  he  often  says  in  his  light-hearted  way,  the 
most  important  helper  he  has  is  Mr.  Human  Nature. 
It  is  because  he  has  studied  men,  because  he  under- 
stands and  loves  his  kind,  and  takes  a  real  interest 
in  the  pleasures  of  the  men  to  whom  he  sells,  that  he 
has  been  able  to  create,  and  is  able  to  direct,  this 
intricate  business.  Mr.  Martin,  more  than  any 
other  man,  was  instrumental  in  collecting  money 
and  organising  Funds  for  sending  tobacco  and 
cigarettes  to  the  men  in  our  ships  and  our  armies 
during  the  late  War.  It  was  by  knowing  how  to  appeal 
to  human  nature  that  he  accomplished  this,  and 
through  his  great  organising  genius  that  he  enabled 
all  the  money  to  buy  the  highest  attainable  limit  in 
quantity  and  quality,  so  that  the  men  got  as  much 
as  human  ingenuity  could  make  possible  for  the 
money  subscriber,  and  got  it  as  good  as  possible. 

I  could  tell  you  many  more  things  about  mail- 
order advertising  if  there  were  time.  I  told  you 
something  last  week  about  the  amazing  mail-order 
department  of  the  Timothy  Eaton  shop  in  Toronto. 
I  could  tell  you  much  about  the  big  catalogue  houses 
of  the  United  States — Sears,  Roebuck  &  Co.,  and 
Montgomery  Moore  &  Co.,  and  the  rest — if  there 
were  time.  But  it  is  necessary  to  approach  the 
second  part  of  this  final  lecture,  and  deal  with 
Advertising  as  a  Career. 


ADVERTISING  AS  A  CAREER  235 

Part  II. — Advertising  as  a  Career 

You  may  have  noticed  that,  as  a  general  rule, 
a  man  will  not  advise  another  to  enter  upon  his 
own  profession  or  calling.  He  is  too  intimate 
with  its  drawbacks,  and,  by  the  time  he  is  of 
an  age  to  be  pursued  for  advice,  is  very  likely 
a  little  disillusioned,  a  little  tired.  You  are  now 
about  to  meet  with  an  exception  to  this  rule. 
To  a  person  whose  mind  and  habits  are  of  the 
appropriate  type,  I  give  you  as  my  deliberate, 
my  considered  view,  the  opinion  that  no  career 
offers  such  good  opportunities  as  Advertising.  None 
has,  as  I  see  the  future  of  the  world,  a  more 
expanding  future. 

Advertising  is  as  yet  in  its  infancy.  I  told  you 
in  my  first  Lecture  that  its  real  progress  dated  from 
the  discovery  that  the  only  really  efficient  advertising 
was  honest  and  truthful  advertising.  That  discovery 
is  not  much  more  than  thirty_years  old.  There  are 
advertising  men  who  have  not  observed  it  yet. 
They  are  content  with  the  minor  profits  still  obtain- 
able by  exaggeration  and  petty  dishonesty.  These 
profits  will  grow  smaller  and  smaller  as  time  goes 
on.  The  future  lies  at  the  feet  of  those  who  will 
take  the  trouble  to  be  truthful.  It  is  not  so  easy 
as  the  other  course,  but  it  wins. 

You  have  the  opportunity  to  get  on  the  waggon 
while  it  is  moving  forward,  but  has  not  yet  gathered 
speed.  Advertising,  in  the  future,  will  be  con- 
ducted in  a  far  more  scientific  manner  than  now. 
Throughout  these  lectures  I  have  repeatedly  spoken 
of  the  policy  by  which  Advertising  is  determined  and 


236  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

governed.  In  my  third  Lecture  I  gave  you  a  dim 
and  fragmentary  outline  of  what  advertising  policy 
means,  with  a  few  examples.  I  am  sorry  to  say 
that  most  advertisers  as  yet  go  to  work  without  any 
clearly  defined  policy.  The  word  is  strange  to  them. 
Very  often  they  have  a  policy  without  knowing  it. 
I  mean  that  an  unsystematised,  unscientific  sense 
of  the  best  way  to  sell  their  goods  by  advertising 
causes  them  to  advertise  in  a  particular  way ;  but  as 
they  have  not  formulated  any  principle  to  them- 
selves, they  are  always  liable  to  get  off  the  line, 
and  waste  money  on  side-issues  or  through  mistakes 
in  policy.  It  takes  a  long  time  and  requires  a  more 
varied  experience  than  that  which  can  be  derived 
from  any  one  business,  to  develop  a  sense  of  adver- 
tising policy,  and  that  is  where  the  professional 
worker  can  do  a  great  deal,  and  is  already  doing  a 
great  deal,  for  Advertising  and  for  advertisers. 
I  had  been  twenty  years  in  the  advertising  business 
before  I  adopted  the  profession  of  advertisement 
consultant,  mainly  with  the  idea  that  by  analys- 
ing the  problems  of  advertisers  1  could  develop  a 
systematic  policy  for  them,  and  that  this  work 
had  a  big  future. 

Without  a  defined  policy.  Advertising  is  what 
the  general  public  thinks  it,  a  sort  of  intuitive  process 
— an  art  rather  than  a  science.  Not  many  years 
ago,  manufacturers  who  advertised  groped  about 
for  a  plan,  using  guesswork,  with  their  hearts  in  their 
mouths,  rather  astonished  when  they  made  money, 
not  at  all  sure  that  their  increased  turnover  wa 
not  attributable  to  pure  luck.  Plenty  of  them  still 
secretly  think  so.  When  times  are  bad,  the  first 
expense    to   be   cut   out   is   advertising.      Presently 


ADVERTISING  AS  A  CAREER  237 

they  find  themselves  worse  off  than  ever,  and  then 
blame  Advertising. 

All  this  comes  from  |he  mischievous  fatuity  of 
regarding  Advertising  as  an  art.  I  am  going  to 
show  you,  in  a  few  moments,,  how  advertising  policy 
can  be  evolved,  and  indicate  opportunities  for  intel- 
ligent workers  seeking  a  career. 

When  I  recommend  Advertising  as  a  career,  I 
am  not  offering  to  initiate  you  into  a  soft  job.  I 
know,  indeed,  of  no  calling  where  promotion  is  so 
rapid,  and  no  profession  which  can  be  entered  with 
so  little  formality,  so  little  preparation.  Certainly 
an  advertising  man  who  makes  a  good  average  success 
will  make  as  much  money  as  an  average  solicitor, 
doctor,  or  architect.  But  a  doctor  cannot  begin 
to  earn  money  until  he  has  spent  a  good  deal  of 
money  upon  his  training.  He  cannot  start  business 
at  once  by  curing  headaches  for  a  small  fee,  and 
presently  learn  to  cure  pneumonia  and  get  a  larger 
fee.  A  solicitor  must  serve  articles,  with  a  heavy 
stamp-duty  on  his  indenture,  and  pass  two  examina- 
tions, before  he  can  practise.  But  all  the  advertising 
men  who  are  now  at  the  top  of  the  tree  were  earning 
money  in  some  other  way  before  they  moved  to  the 
advertising  side  of  business,  and  were  earning  money 
while  they  picked  up  their  knowledge  of  Advertising. 
They  rose  because  they  deserved  to  rise.  There  is 
no  other  calling  in  which  unassisted  merit  earns 
promotion  so  uniformly  and  so  rapidly. 

Do  not  let  this  make  you  think  that  it  is  all 
easy.  For  one  man  who  makes  a  real  success  in 
Advertising  a  hundred  never  rise  above  the  position 
of  a  clerk.  If  Advertising  is  lavish  in  its  rewards, 
it  is  also  merciless  in  its  criticism.    Much  thinking, 


238  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

much  perseverance,  hard  work,  teachableness,  self- 
denial  and  courage  are  required  :  and  these  are  not 
all.  Without  initiative  and  originality  they  will 
not  carry  you  above  the  foot-hills.  These  are  what 
you  must  cultivate,  along  with  the  less  showy  virtues 
which  I  have  been  inculcating.  But  how  interesting 
the  work  is,  even  at  its  humblest  !  How  fascinating 
is  a  task  wherein  your  chief  implement  is  the  human 
mind  !  How  much  better  worth  while  is  the  work 
itself  than  the  monetary  reward  !  I  have  been  thirty 
years  in  the  advertising  business.  1  was  a  lazy  young 
dog  when  I  began,  and  have  always  steadfastly 
refused  to  go  on  with  any  work  that  bored  me.  I 
can  truthfully  say  that  though  few  men  have  worked 
harder,  and  many  men  have  made  more  money, 
there  is  not  an  hour  of  the  work  that  1  have 
not  enjoyed.  Yes,  the  work  is  hard.  It  takes  more 
out  of  the  brain  than  most  things.  But  the  reward 
is  in  proportion,  as  I  count  reward.  Advertising 
is  a  hard  mistress  to  woo  ;  but  her  generous  caresses 
repay  all  the  rigours  of  a  courtship  that  need  not 
last  so  long  as  the  patriarch's  service  for  Rachel. 

What  are  the  qualifications  of  an  advertising 
man  ?  I  have  named  the  critical  ones.  In  essence, 
they  come  down  to  this — that  a  man  must  be  willing 
to  do  his  own  thinking.  Cleverness  is  not  enough. 
It  has  been  said  that  a  good  advertising  man  is 
one  who  has  the  patience  to  do  well  what  clever 
people  only  do  poorly. 

Of  course,  training  is  necessary.  It  can  be  had 
for  nothing  by  taking  a  humble  post — a  clerk's  job — ■ 
and  waiting  for  your  opportunity.  Now  and  then — < 
for  the  vacancies  are  not  frequent — a  little  money 
will  enable  a  young  man  or  young  woman  to  be 


ADVERTISING  AS  A  CAREER  239 

articled  to  a  consultant.  This  should  lead  the  way 
to  the  better-paid  positions,  because  in  the  office 
of  a  consultant  with  a  large  practice  there  are  oppor- 
tunities to  study  the  problems  of  a  number  of  different 
businesses.  My  own  practice,  for  instance — I  only 
talk  about  this  because,  naturally,  I  know  more  about 
my  own  than  other  people's — includes  iron  and  steel 
manufacturers,  engineers,  and  manufacturers  of 
different  engineering  products,  and  certain  textiles — 
none  of  them  ever  advertised  to  the  public.  On  the 
other  hand  I  have  clients  who  are  retail  drapers, 
hosiers,  shirtmakers,  fancy-goods  dealers,  who  adver- 
tise direct  to  the  public  in  single  districts,  and  mail- 
order traders  who  deal  with  the  public  all  over  the 
world.  Another  is  a  manufacturer  of  knitted  under- 
wear :  another  is  a  large  chemical  concern,  manu- 
facturing dye-stuffs,  and  another  a  dyer  and  cleaner. 
I  have  one  client  who  advertises  a  baby-food,  one 
who  makes  marking-ink,  two  who  make  fountain- 
pens,  a  retail  grocer,  wholesale  tea-dealers,  publishers, 
printers,  and  many  others  :  and  of  course,  people 
drift  in  for  advice  on  all  kinds  of  businesses.  These 
things  I  only  tell  you  to  illustrate  the  great  variety 
of  businesses  into  which  a  man  will  obtain  an  insight 
if  he  can  get  a  footing  in  the  office  of  an  advertise- 
ment consultant  or  agent  in  a  large  way  of  business. 
Plenty  of  advertising  agents  handle  quite  as  many 
different  types  of  business  as  that.  A  pupil  who 
could  spend  a  couple  of  years  in  any  advertising 
office,  whether  an  agency  or  a  consultant's  office, 
where  he  could  study  a  variety  of  problems  like  that 
could,  if  he  had  anything  in  him  at  all,  at  once 
command  a  living  wage — ^5  a  week  or  so — at  the 
end  of  his  pupilage,  and  would  rise  rapidly.     That 


24©  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

is  the  general  rule — that  he  would  only  earn  sub- 
sistence-money at  the  start.  A  man  must  prove  his 
worth  before  his  pay  advances  ;  but  when  he  has 
proved  it,  his  pay  rises  fast.  Payment  by  results, 
a  man  receiving  a  bonus  or  percentage,  is  common 
in  some  branches  of  the  business.  A  thousand  a  year 
is  not  at  all  out  of  the  way  as  a  salary  for  a  good 
man.  What  he  can  obtain  in  the  way  of  positions 
carrying  a  bonus,  or  working  up  into  a  partnership 
or  shares  in  a  limited  company,  naturally  depends 
upon  a  man's  own  gift  of  salesmanship — I  mean 
of  selling  his  own  services. 

But  you  must  understand  that  this  kind  of  thing 
is  not  done  by  amateur  work.  Many  people  think 
that  advertising  is  a  nice  easy  job  for  amateurs. 
That  is  a  mistake.  And  Advertising  will  become 
more  and  more  technical  as  time  goes  on.  Amateurs 
used  to  make  money  on  it  a  few  years  ago — a  little 
money  :  not  much  even  then.  They  cannot  make 
any  money  on  it  at  all  now,  and  a  good  thing  too. 
The  conception  of  Advertising  as  a  business  depend- 
ing on  artistic  inspiration  or  a  series  of  happy 
intuitions  is  not  only  inaccurate  but  mischievous. 
It  has  led  to  a  great  deal  of  bad  advertising,  and  has 
been  the  means  of  discouraging  men  who  might  have 
done  well.  Advertising  is  not  a  fine  art  but  a  com- 
mercial operation.  A  banker  who  established  a  new 
branch  on  the  strength  of  an  inspiration  to  the  effect 
that  business  could  be  done  in  a  given  place  would 
not  long  have  a  business  anywhere.  No  one  con- 
ceives of  any  commercial  operation,  other  than 
Advertising,  as  being  conducted  except  with 
experienced  prevision  and  on  settled  principles. 
Yet  Advertising,  which  is  just  as  technical  a  job  as 


ADVERTISING  AS  A  CAREER  241 

banking  or  medicine,  is  quite  commonly  discussed 
as  if  it  had  no  scientific  basis  at  all — as  if  it  were  a 
pure  gamble.  *. 

The  most  conspicuous  feature  of  Advertising  in 
the  near  future  will  be — in  fact  the  most  conspicuous 
feature  of  really  modern  Advertising  is  now — the 
demand  for  exactness.  This  offers  one  career. 
People  dutside  the  business  think  that  Advertis- 
ing means  advertisement-writing.  Advertisement- 
writing  is  only  one  department  of  it  and  not  the 
most  important.  Policy  comes  first.  A  modern 
advertiser,  when  he  is  launching  a  product  or  a 
campaign,  does  not  go  at  it  blindly.  He  investigates 
the  conditions.  Here  is  a  chance  for  some  very 
interesting  work.  It  may  have  the  nature  of  research. 
I  can  only  suggest  to  your  minds  in  a  very  rudi- 
mentary way  what  is  meant,  by  contrasting  two 
types  of  merchandise.  Suppose  you  had  one  manu- 
facturer who  wanted  to  sell  washing-machines,  and 
another  who  wanted  to  sell  marking-ink.  What, 
respectively,  would  their  advertising  policy  be  ? 

The  first  would  want  to  find  the  right  sort  of 
medium  to  interest  people  who  did  their  washing  at 
home.  He  would  believe,  probably,  that  only  the 
poorer  people  washed  at  home  :  the  rest  sent  their 
clothes  to  a  laundry.  But  he  might  set  someone  to 
test  this  belief,  and  discover  that  while  the  middle- 
classes  in  some  parts  used  the  laundry,  the  rich  kept 
laundry-maids.  And  he  would  find,  perhaps,  that 
in  rural  districts  nearly  everyone  washed  at  home, 
perhaps  employing  day-labour. 

This  would  not  be  discovered  without  some 
trouble.  The  habits  of  the  people  might  differ  in 
various  parts  of  the  country.     You  know  they  do 


242  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

diflFer.  In  London,  hardly  any  bread  is  made  except 
by  bakers.  But  in  some  counties  every  housewife 
bakes  bread,  and  sometimes  the  practice  varies  even 
in  neighbouring  towns.  In  some  Lancashire  towns 
it  is  hopeless  to  advertise  any  sort  of  fancy  foods 
for  cooking,  because  the  wives  work  in  the  mill. 
They  buy  pastry  and  cakes  at  shops,  and  cook  hardly 
anything  at  home  but  meat  and  vegetables,  and 
sometimes  not  even  these.  The  national  kitchens 
have  fostered  the  non-cooking  household — they, 
and  the  scarcity  and  the  atrocious  inefficiency  of 
domestic  servants.  You  can  see  what  a  problem 
this  would  create  for  the  makers  of  such  things  as 
baking-powders,  gas-stoves  and  so  on,  and  what  an 
advantage  for  vendors  of  branded  breads  like  Hovis 
or  Turog  bread.  Well,  you  might  find  a  similar 
diversity  of  habits  in  relation  to  washing.  Before 
spending  any  money  to  advertise  a  washing-machine, 
the  local  problem  would  have  to  be  solved,  and  then, 
presently,  the  problem  of  how  best  to  approach 
all  the  possible  buyers,  and  not  waste  money  on  the 
impossible  part  of  the  public. 

Furthermore,  it  is  conceivable  that  the  washing- 
machine  man  might  consider  the  policy  of  trying 
to  change  the  habits  of  the  people.  He  might 
ask  himself :  Can  I  show  that  my  machine  makes 
washing  so  easy  that  people  will  be  induced  to  buy 
it,  instead  of  sending  their  clothes  out  ?  Changes 
as  radical  as  this  have  been  effected.  When  I  first 
saw  a  man  smoke  a  cigarette,  it  was  a  mystery  to 
me.  Only  foreigners  smoked  cigarettes  before  about 
1878.  Advertising  has  established  this  habit.  Could 
it  change  a  habit  like  the  laundry  habit  ?  This  would 
be   a   subject   for  research  work.     Advertising  has 


ADVERTISING  AS  A  CAREER  243 

taught  business  men  to  use  typewriting  instead  of 
penmanship.  It  has  revolutionised  office  system 
and  book-keeping.  I  put  it  to  you,  as  I  have  often 
put  it  to  practical  men,  that  research  work  is  an 
integral  element  of  Advertising.  A  man  who  had 
in  hand  the  problem  which  I  have  suggested — 
of  selling  washing-machines — would  take  typical 
localities  and  find  out  just  how  many  households 
used  the  laundry.  That  would  give  him  a  notion 
of  what  sized  obstacle  he  was  up  against.  He 
could  also  estimate  the  magnitude  of  the  market 
not  spoiled  by  the  laundry  habit — I  mean  how  many 
houses  did  their  own  washing,  and  were  consequently 
what  would  be  called  *  live  prospects.'  Where  the 
richest  houses  proved  the  exceptional  class,  or  any 
large  part  of  it,  he  would  further  try  to  find  out 
whether  the  right  approach  was  through  the  laundry- 
maid,  or  through  the  housekeeper,  or  whether  the 
lady  of  the  house  herself  had  to  be  converted.  Having 
looked  into  all  these  matters,  he  might  decide  that 
the  conversion  of  the  general  housewife-public  to  a 
new  habit  was  too  big  a  job.  Then  he  would  approach 
the  problem  from  a  new  angle.  Certain  types  or 
values  of  houses,  and  houses  in  towns  as  opposed 
to  houses  in  the  country,  would  be  ruled  out  as 
useless  to  him.  After  investigation  he  might  fix 
a  certain  rent  as  representing  the  maximum  for  a 
home-washing  household.  But  this  might  all  be 
upset  in  some  places  by  local  peculiarities.  There 
are  towns  where  the  houses  of  the  value  which 
elsewhere  would  wash  at  home  do  the  work  at  the 
municipal  laundry.  Why  ?  Because  in  these  towns 
the  poorer  houses  are  still  of  the  back-to-back  type. 
They  have  nowhere  to  dry  their  clothes.     Another 


244  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

thing  that  he  would  probably  do,  would  be  to  watch 
how  far  from  a  town  laundry  carts  collected.  All 
the  houses  outside  the  limit  would  be  live  prospects. 
A  proper  statistical  statement  and  an  apparatus  of 
maps  and  graphs  would  show  him  where  his  market 
lay.  Then  he  could  settle  tentatively  upon  his 
mode  of  advertisement,  but  not  upon  his  exact 
merchandising  plan. 

There  are  other  problems  here.  What  is  the 
right  selling  approach  ?  Do  people  buy  an  article 
like  a  washing-machine  from  the  ironmonger  ?  And 
do  they  buy  in  the  nearest  ironmonger's  shop  or  go 
up  to  the  big  town  ?  Do  they  then  go  to  the  iron- 
monger, or  to  the  departmental  shop  ?  Or  would 
they  more  readily  order  by  post  ?  The  habits  of 
the  people  in  relation  to  this  particular  kind  of 
purchase  would  have  to  be  probed,  and  also  the 
habits  of  the  retail  trader.  What  help  could  be 
expected  from  the  ironmongery-  or  furniture-shops  ? 
Would  it  pay  best  to  fix  a  retail  price,  and  take  steps 
for  ensuring  the  retailer  a  good  profit,  so  as  to  engage 
his  interest  ?  Or  would  it  be  best  to  leave  the  price 
to  be  fixed  by  competition  ?  People  might  be 
thought  willing  to  buy  at  a  certain  price,  but  not 
above  it.  That  would  be  a  reason  for  leaving  the 
price  to  settle  itself  by  competition.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  ironmongers  might  refuse  to  handle  the 
article  unless  protected  against  the  cu1;-price  retailers 
in  large  towns.  These  would  be  matters  for  inves- 
tigation, and  they  ought  to  be  investigated  before 
money  was  spent,  not  after  the  money  had  begun 
to  be  spent.  It  is  spending  money  in  the  dark  that 
gives  Advertising  a  bad  name. 

Now  turn  to  the  problem  of  the  marking-ink  man. 


ADVERTISING  AS  A  CAREER  245 

It  is  the  exact  reverse  of  the  other  in  every  way. 
He  wants  the  laundry  customer.  The  other  wants 
the  family  that  washe^  at  home.  The  washing- 
machine  man  wants  to  sell  something  that  costs  a 
fair  sum,  for  a  poor  household,  but  lasts  a  long  time. 
The  marking-ink  man  wants  to  sell  something  that 
costs  very  little,  but  has  to  be  bought  again  and 
again,  because  it  is  soon  used  up.  One  has  his 
market  chiefly  in  the  country  and  in  the  poor  parts 
of  towns.  The  other  has  his  market  almost  entirely 
in  the  middle  and  upper  classes  and  in  towns.  One 
man  hardly  thinks  of  London.  For  the  other, 
London  is  a  leading  market.  In  merchandising, 
there  is  the  same  contrast.  The  washing-machine 
man  will  most  likely  deal  direct  with  the  retailer. 
At  all  events,  he  will  have  to  investigate  trade 
customs  and  find  out  whether  the  jobbing-house — 
the  wholesale  middleman — is  of  any  use  to  him. 
But  for  the  marking-ink  manufacturer  it  is  certain 
that  the  middleman  is  the  right  distributor.  His 
average  sale  per  shop  is  so  small  that  he  cannot 
afford  to  concentrate  on  direct  business  with  the 
retailer. 

You  can  see  that  this  sort  of  work  provides  a 
career  which,  on  the  face  of  it,  does  not  look  much 
like  a  career  in  Advertising.  Yet  it  has  more  to  do 
with  the  success  of  Advertising  than  many  callings 
classed  as  strictly  within  the  scope  of  Advertising. 
By  such  investigations  as  these,  policy  is  determin^ed. 
Advertising  is  a  house  in  which  there  are  many 
mansions. 

I  have  only  been  able  to  sketch  out  for  you,  in 
a  very  imperfect  way,  one  kind  of  research  work — 
the  kind  technically  called  field  work.     As  I  never 


246  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

happen  to  have  organised  field  work  on  a  washing- 
machine,  I  am  certain  to  have  overlooked  many- 
problems  that  would  arise.  Research  work  of  other 
kinds  is  done  indoors.  A  great  many  businesses 
possess,  in  their  records,  a  mass  of  information 
which  might  be  used  with  enormous  profit,  to  direct 
the  policy  of  their  Advertising.  Perhaps  all  businesses 
possess  it.  Once  more,  I  can  only  suggest  the  sub- 
ject by  a  rough  example,  superficially  described.  The 
business  of  a  trained  advertising  man  would  be  to 
think  out  schemes  for  himself.  But  I  will  suggest 
one  to  you. 

You  know  that  in  many  businesses  an  article 
is  sold  to  the  consumer,  and  then  the  consumer  buys 
something  that  is  used  with  it.  He  buys  a  type- 
writer :  he  will  want  ribbons,  at  all  events  ;  it  may 
pay  to  sell  him  paper,  carbon  sheets,  and  other  things 
too.  He  buys  a  safety-razor  :  he  will  always  be 
requiring  blades.  He  buys  a  player-piano.  It  is 
of  no  use  to  him  without  rolls  of  music.  In  this 
way  the  disadvantage  of  a  business  in  which  a 
single  sale  appears  to  exhaust  the  customer's  buying- 
capacity  is  overcome.  But  a  better  example  than 
any  of  these  would  be  a  thing  like  a  hand-camera  or 
a  gramophone.  The  initial  sale  is  not  so  large  as 
where  a  player-piano  is  sold.  The  use  of  supplies 
is  continuous.  Do  you  not  see,  as  soon  as  I  have  said 
this,  that  the  tail  may  be  heavier  than  the  dog— the 
supplies  more  important,  than  the  initial  sale  ? 

A  useful  form  of  research,  in  (for  example)  a 
photographic  firm,  might  take  this  form  :  People 
will  insist  on  all  sorts  of  different  cameras — some 
to  use  glass  plates,  others  for  roll  films  or  for  cut 
films  ;    others,  again,  with  a  stand,  others  of  the 


ADVERTISING  AS  A  CAREER  247 

snap-shot  type,  with  or  without  a  full-sized  screen 
instead  of  the  small  view-finder.  The  use  that  a 
person  makes  of  a  camera  will  depend  upon  certain 
features  of  it  that  make  it  easy  to  use,  or  give  a 
particularly  good  picture.  The  supplies — plates, 
films,  paper  and  so  forth — will  to  some  extent  vary 
according  to  the  type  of  camera.  Suppose  you 
analysed  the  sales  of  these  things,  and  found  that 
certain  cameras  were  used  very  much,  and  certain 
others  very  little.  You  would  here  have  a  line  of 
policy  to  pursue.  Supplies  are  probably  more  profit- 
able to  sell  than  cameras,  if  you  count  all  the  supplies 
that  fit  one  particular  camera  :  they  are  consumed  ; 
they  go  on  selling  ;  they  represent,  on  the  aggregate, 
a  larger  sum  of  money  that  you  can  get.  Very 
well.  You  will,  therefore,  so  frame  your  advertising 
as  to  push  the  kind  of  camera  that  uses  the  most 
supplies. 

Again,  in  a  photographic  business  it  would  not 
be  very  difficult  to  find  out  the  subjects  that  are 
most  often  photographed.  I  used  to  tell  a  client 
of  mine  in  that  business,  that  the  biggest  consumer 
of  plates  and  paper  was  the  snapshot  of  the  baby 
pulling  the  cat's  tail.  But  I  may  have  been  wrong. 
Some  less  engaging  subject  may  be  most  popular. 
But,  anyway,  by  taking  a  look  at  the  films  and  plates 
sent  to  dealers  to  develop,  you  would  be  able  to 
accumulate  statistics,  showing  that  out  of  a  hundred 
amateur  photographs,  so-many  would  be  landscapes, 
so-many  groups,  so-many  portraits,  so-many  pieces 
of  architecture,  and  so  on.  If  you  found  that  one 
particular  class  of  subjects  predominated,  you  might 
so  frame  your  advertisements  as  to  follow  the  line 
of  least  resistance.-   Recommend  people  to  take  the 


248  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

kind  of  picture  that  you  find  that  they  like  to  take, 
and  you  will  sell  more  supplies,  and  make  new 
amateur  photographers  who  want  to  take  just  that 
kind  of  subject. 

All  this  is  difficult,  brain-racking  work.  When 
you  come  into  contact  with  a  business,  you  will  not 
at  once  strike  the  idea  for  the  sort  of  information  that 
can  be  sought  in  its  records.  You  must  think,  and 
think,  and  think  again.  But  somewhere  there  are 
facts  which  you  can  dig  out,  and  use  for  the  directing 
of  policy.  A  man  or  woman  who  can  originate 
schemes  of  this  kind  commands  good  remuneration, 
because  the  information,  properly  used,  is  sure  to 
yield  large  profits. 

It  is  always  a  fortunate  thing,  from  the  earner's 
point  of  view,  to  be  attached  to  a  department  that 
shows  visible  profits.  About  the  worst  drawback 
to  the  advertising  department  is  that  the  expenses 
show  so  much  more  plainly  there  than  the  profits. 
The  sales-manager  gets  all  the  credit.  The  advertising 
manager  stops  all  the  stones  thrown  at  expenditure 
and  extravagance.  That  is  because  of  what  I  said 
a  little  while  ago — that  manufacturers  and  other 
advertisers  are  not  yet  fully  converted  to  the  opinion 
that  Advertising  is  a  really  organised  and  definite 
process. 

But  the  advertising  man  is  coming  into  his  own. 
Very  largely  this  is  through  his  influence  on  pro- 
duction and  turnover.  He  compels  the  works  to 
manufacture  more  stuff,  because  it  sells  fast ;  in  a 
mercantile  house  he  compels  the  buyers  to  order 
more  goods  because  the  turnover  is  rapid.  Besides 
all  this,  the  advertising  manager  sometimes  discovers, 
through  his  varied  investigations,  that  the  quality 


ADVERTISING  AS  A  CAREER  249 

of  the  wares  manufactured  or  handled  needs  to  be 
improved.  He  is  always  wanting  to  raise  the  average 
value  per  customer.  Agd  again,  his  information 
often  shows  him  that  the  selling-methods  of  the 
house  are  faulty.  Travellers  are  not  backing  up  the 
advertising  as  they  should.  Middlemen  are  being 
allowed  too  much  profit  for  the  work  that  they  do. 
By  proper  gingering  up  they  can  be  made  to  earn 
their  discount.  Thus  it  comes  about  that  the 
advertising  manager  often  acquires  a  leading  position, 
and  is  placed  on  the  Board  of  Directors,  or  absorbs 
the  office  of  sales-manager.  You  may  remember 
my  saying  of  a  certain  problem  discussed  in  my 
first  Lecture,  that  it  might  seem  more  a  sales-problem 
than  an  advertising  problem,  but  that  this  really 
did  not  matter.  Every  sales-problem  is  liable  to 
be  a  problem  for  the  consideration  of  the  advertising 
department,  and  every  advertising  problem  is  more 
or  less  a  sales-problem.  Thus  great  advantages  are 
obtained  by  unifying  the  two  departments.  That 
does  not  mean  making  one  man  do  two  men's  work. 
It  means  making  one  man  supreme — putting  him 
over  both  departments.  That  one  man  will  generally 
be  the  advertising  manager,  because  the  advertising 
man's  type  of  mind  is  likely  to  be  the  more  progressive. 
But  it  does  not  make  much  difference.  If  the 
nominal  sales-manager  takes  control,  either  he  will 
develop  the  advertising  man's  type  of  mind,  or  he 
will  have  to  go.  I  am  constantly  struck  by  the 
number  of  men  whom  I  have  known  just  as  the 
advertising  managers  of  different  firms,  and  seen 
rise  to  the  positions  of  Directors.  In  the  right  firm 
that  position  is  a  legitimate  object  of  ambition. 
If  you  get  into  the  kind  of  firm  where  such  prospects 


250  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

do  not  exist,  I  advise  you  to  keep  an  eye  open  for 
the  opportunity  to  change. 

But  I  have  been  going  rather  far.  We  had  not 
reached  managerial  positions  yet,  and  I  want  to 
tell  you  about  things  of  more  immediate  practical 
interest  to  yourselves- — to  the  younger  and  more 
numerous  part  of  my  audience.  I  have  described 
a  class  of  work — industrial  research — which  is  being 
employed  and  will  be  much  more  employed  in  the 
near  future.  That  is  work  for  a  man  or  woman  who 
has  had  some  experience,  some  training  in  statistics 
and  even  in  economics  :  and  it  also  demands  an 
energetic,  questioning  personality.  Other  work 
affecting  policy  is  done  by  persons  with  commercial 
experience,  combined,  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
with  psychology,  or  a  grasp  of  human  nature.  I  said 
a  little  about  this  in  another  part  of  to-night's 
lecture.  The  direction  of  advertising  policy  re- 
quires a  good  deal  of  experience.  It  is  work  for 
others  than  the  beginner. 

After  policy  comes  copy-writing — but  take  care 
that  it  does  come  after.  I  devoted  a  whole 
Lecture  to  this  department  of  Advertising  three 
weeks  ago,  and  to-night  I  need  not  discuss  again  the 
qualifications  of  a  copy-writer.  1  only  need  tell  you 
just  how  a  copy-writer  enters  upon  his  or  her  work — 
it  is  eminently  suited  for  women — and  rises  in  it. 
Except  in  novels,  he  does  not  enter  upon  it,  believe 
me,  by  writing  a  brilliant  inspirational  piece  of 
copy,  posting  it  to  a  big  advertiser,  and  being  there- 
upon appointed  to  the  head  of  the  advertising 
department.  In  most  cases  the  new  copy-writer  is 
already  employed  in  the  advertising  department, 
or  is  observed  to  have  the  education,  and  the  kind 


ADVERTISING  AS  A  CAREER  251 

of  brain,  that  make  a  possible  copy-writer.  Then 
he  is  given  a  chance,  because  copy-writers  are  rather 
scarce.  In  a  well-organised  advertising  department 
or  advertising  agency,  the  embryo  copy-writer  is 
even  then  not  set  down  with  a  blank  sheet  and 
bidden  to  think-up  ideas.  On  the  contrary,  the  head 
of  the  copy  department,  or  perhaps  the  advertising 
manager  in  person  (according  to  the  size  of  the 
organisation)  will  explain  the  proposition,  as  it  is 
called  in  advertising  men's  slang,  and  outline  the 
selling  policy.  Then  he  will  suggest  one  or  two 
ideas  for  copy,  and  lay  down  the  line  of  argument. 
The  copy-writer  will  then  go  away,  frame  advertise- 
ments accordingly,  and  if  he  has  developed  (or 
been  given)  a  mode  of  display,  will  make  a  lay-out 
or  explain  to  the  art-department  (if  there  is  one) 
what  he  wants.  Finally,  he  will  submit  the  type- 
written copy  of  the  lay-out  to  his  chief,  who  will  go 
over  it,  explain  the  faults,  and  send  him  back  to  do 
the  work  all  over  again,  and  again,  and  again,  until 
it  is  satisfactory.  He  will  not,  if  he  is  wise,  impose 
any  idea  upon  the  copy-writer  until  he  has  succeeded 
in  convincing  the  copy-writer  that  it  is  sound,  because 
no  man  can  write  copy  that  sells  goods  unless  he 
believes  in  the  argument. 

^The  next  stage  is  reached,  some  fine  day,  when 
the  copy-writer  brings  back  to  his  chief,  not  only 
what  he  has  been  told  to  write,  but  some  original 
work  of  his  own.  This,  if  it  has  any  germ  of  success 
in  it,  will  be  gone  over,  and  corrected  in  the  same 
way  as  the  other.  By  degrees,  less  and  less  alteration 
will  be  needed,  more  and  more  of  the  work  will  be 
original,  and  the  cub  copy-writer,  as  he  is  called, 
will  become  a  full-fledged  advertising  man,  fit  to  be 


252  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

sent  to  study  the  goods  ;  walk  about  the  factory, 
picking  up  ideas  from  the  foremen  and  the  managers  ; 
talk  to  travellers  and  consumers,  and  hereby  supply 
his  own  notions  about  policy  instead  of  having  them 
prescribed  for  him.  For  that  is  what  the  copy- 
chief  has  been  doing,  far  more  than  he  has  been 
correcting  cub-English  or  suggesting  headlines.  He 
has  been  bringing  the  copy  into  line  with  policy — 
the  only  way  to  make  good  copy. 

In  the  same  kind  of  way,  draughtsmen  are  trained 
in  making  pictures  and  designs  for  advertising  : 
but  a  good  deal  of  art-work  is  bought,  even  in 
businesses  and  agencies  large  enough  to  have  their 
own  art-departments ;  because  art  is  a  tricksy  sprite 
— even  commercial  art — not  easily  chained  down  to 
a  desk. 

Of  course,  what  I  have  said  applies  only  to  large 
advertising  firms  and  advertising  agencies.  If  you 
get  a  start  in  a  small  concern  you  may  have  to 
flounder  about,  getting  your  own  experience  at  the 
expense  of  the  firm.  There  are  many  openings  like 
that  for  a  man  or  woman  who  has  first  had  a  little 
experience  in  a  subordinate  position  in  a  large  house. 
The  small  advertiser  is  not  risking  much.  He  is 
probably  rather  close  to  his  own  advertising,  and  can 
side-track  any  serious  blunders.  The  job  is  not  so 
large  that  he  cannot  control  it,  and  even  if  something 
goes  wrong,  the  loss  is  not  great.  It  pays  better 
to  have  a  cheap  advertisement  spoiled  from  time  to 
time  than  to  pay  the  salary  of  a  high-grade  advertis- 
ing man,  who  would  charge  so  much  for  not  spoiling 
it  that  he  would  eat  up  too  much  of  the  profits.  I 
am  thinking  of  retail  advertising  in  the  provinces, 
particularly.     Hundreds  of  men  are  doing  the  whole 


ADVERTISING  AS  A  CAREER  253 

work  at  anything  from  £4  to  IS  sl  week,  for  single 
shops,  gaining  a  lot  of  experience,  and  turning  out 
copy  that  is  sometimes  ^.astonishingly  good.  They 
are  modest,  painstaking  chaps ;  who  read  everything 
about  Advertising  that  they  can  get  hold  of,  labour 
to  improve  their  work,  and  presently  try  for  a  position 
in  a  larger  concern,  or  in  an  advertising  agency. 
That  sort  of  retail  opening  has  promise  in  it,  if  you 
are  young,  and  can  get  a  little  experience  first,  by 
doing  the  donkey-work  of  a  big  concern  in  London. 
When  you  go  out  to  take  the  little  responsibilities 
that  I  have  described,  I  hope  that  what  you  may 
remember  of  these  talks  of  ours  in  the  last  six  weeks 
may  be  of  some  use  to  you. 

Other  work  in  major  Advertising  includes  con- 
tracting. An  advertiser  using  a  number  of  papers, 
or  an  advertising-agency,  will  need  a  man  or  a  whole 
department  to  buy  the  space,  verify  his  insertions, 
and  book  them  up.  Buying  newspaper  space,  un- 
fortunately, is  quite  a  technical  business,  because  only 
about  6  or  7  per  cent  of  the  papers  and  periodicals 
of  this  country  have  absolutely  fixed  rates  :  94  or 
93  per  cent  of  them  are  open  to  a  bargain.  Offering 
the  lowest  price  with  the  least  shame  is  the  art  of 
the  contract-man.  Of  course  it  is  a  disgrace  that 
more  than  95  per  cent  of  the  publications  in  this 
country  are  owned  by  people  who  refuse  to  divulge 
the  circulation  for  which  advertisers  pay,  and  that 
about  the  same  proportion  charge  him,  not  according 
to  the  value  of  the  space  and  the  size  of  the  circulation, 
but  according  to  his  own  hard-heartedness  and  gift 
of  making  a  bargain.  Billposters  are  in  this  respect 
better  to  deal  with.  You  can  count  the  bills  shown, 
and  the  price  is  the  same  for  all.     In  no  other  form 


254  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

of  advertising,  except  postal  work,  can  you  check-up 
the  expenditure  and  make  so  sure  that  you  are 
receiving  all  the  publicity  that  you  pay  for,  as  in 
billposting. 

Designing  and  writing  printed  matter  are  another 
department  of  Advertising  ;  and  so  is  the  planning 
and  buying  of  it.  And  the  organised  supply  of 
blocks  for  printers  and  newspapers  to  use  in 
illustrating  the  advertiser's  work  calls  for  good  office- 
work  and  system.  Work  like  this  last  is  what  a 
beginner  is  set  to  do  when  he  obtains  his  first  foot- 
hold in  an  advertising  concern.  The  original  blocks, 
made  from  drawings,  are  stored  apart  from  electros 
and  stereotypes.  In  a  well-managed  office,  every 
block  that  goes  out  is  accounted  for,  and  must  be 
returned  when  done  with.  According  to  condition, 
it  is  scrapped,  and  the  value  of  the  metal  recovered ; 
or  put  away  to  use  again.  The  organisation  must 
include  provision  for  keeping  enough  blocks  in  hand 
to  supply  all  requirements,  without  ordering  too 
many,  which  is  a  waste. 

In  all  this,  I  have  spoken  chiefly  of  the  career 
offered  by  Advertising  to  young  people,  not  at  all 
the  career  of  the  man  at  the  top — the  advertiser 
himself,  the  advertising  agent,  the  advertisement 
consultant,  the  billposting  contractor,  the  contractor 
for  postal  advertising,  the  electric-sign  man,  and 
the  rest.  All  of  these  follow  businesses  in  which 
there  is  a  career.  It  would  hardly  be  useful  to  discuss 
them  here,  and  it  would  certainly  be  untimely  to 
discuss  them  now. 

But  if  I  tried  to  tell  you  all  the  things  that  enter 
into  Advertising  I  should  keep  you  here  all  night — 
and  then  forget  something.     I  have  kept  you  pretty 


ADVERTISING  AS  A  CAREER  455 

late  already.  This  is  our  last  night.  If  I  have  said 
anything  to  help  those  of  you  who  look  to  Advertising 
for  a  career,  I  count  myself  happy  to  have  had  the 
opportunity.  I  will  say  one  thing  more.  Perhaps 
it  is  worth  more  than  all  the  rest.  In  New  York 
there  is  published  a  weekly  paper  which  I  mentioned 
in  my  first  lecture.  It  is  called  Printers^  Ink,^  and 
it  is  devoted  to  Advertising  and  the  problems  con- 
nected with  Advertising.  Much  of  it  is,  of  course, 
purely  American.  But  the  whole  of  it  is  so 
practical,  so  full  of  high  ideal  and  of  workmanlike 
suggestion,  that  you  ought  to  read  every  line  of 
it  every  week. 

And  now  all  that  remains  for  me  is  to  thank  you 
for  the  patience  with  which  you  have  let  me  ramble 
on  through  some  few  departments  of  the  great 
subject  which  I  have  attempted  in  these  six  Lectures. 
You  have  been  most  patient  auditors.  Within  the 
limitations  inseparable  from  so  partial  a  treatment 
of  the  complex  business  of  Advertising,  I  have  kept 
back  nothing  that  I  know.  For  Advertising  has 
put  joy  and  pride  into  my  work  for  a  good  many 
years  now,  and  I  should  be  a  poor  creature  if  I  would 
not  take  a  good  deal  of  trouble  to  do  what  little  I 
might  for  its  advancement  and  honour.  And  I  do 
assure  you  that  if  you  embrace  a  career  in  Advertising 
you  will  be  doing  good  and  useful  work — work  that 
does  return  to  the  community  more  than  you  take 
out  of  it.  That,  I  take  it,  is  the  test  of  an  honest 
and  economic  calling.  Advertising  fulfils  the  test. 
And  it  is  certainly  a  very  jolly  life  ! 

1  Printers'  Ink,  185  Madison  Avenue,  New  York,  U.S.  Sub- 
scription, three  dollars  a  year  ;  postage,  outside  the  United  States, 
two  dollars  extra  (Canada  only  one  dollar  extra). 


APPENDIX 

Non-Commercial,  Semi-Commercial,  Institutional, 
AND  Financial  Advertising 

I 

AT  the  suggestion  of  some  correspondents,  I  add  to  the 
foregoing  expositions  of  strictly  commercial  Advertising 
a  few  remarks  on  what  may  be  called  Uncommercial 
Advertising,  or  Advertising  which  does  not  sell  anything,  or 
does  not  sell  goods  or  services  directly.  Along  with  this  it 
will  be  proper  to  discuss  the  cognate  subjects  of  institutional 
and  co-operative  advertising,  where  the  object  is  not  to  sell 
one  particular  product,  but  a  whole  class  of  products,  the 
output  of  different  producers  :  and  I  add  some  notes  on  the 
selling  of  intangible  utilities  departing  a  little  from  the 
strict  classification  of  subjects  in  the  heading. 

Advertising  of  a  non-commercial  kind  has,  of  course, 
been  used  on  an  enormous  scale  during  the  War.  All  nations 
engaged  in  that  conflict  used  the  weapon  of  publicity  not 
only,  or  even  chiefly,  to  influence  opinion  in  the  nations  to 
which  they  were  opposed,  but  also  to  influence  the  actions 
and  feelings  of  their  own  citizens.  Non-commercial  Adver- 
tising had,  of  course,  often  been  used  before  this.  Munici- 
palities, and  other  local  authorities,  in  this  country  and  in 
America,  have  advertised,  either  to  increase  the  populations 
under  their  care  or  to  defend  some  of  their  public  services 
against  discontent.  At  the  General  Election  of  19  lo,  I 
conducted,  in  conjunction  with  my  friend  Mr.  Robert  Donald, 
then  editor  of  the  Daily  Chronicle^  an  advertising  campaign 
for  the   Liberal   Party.     During  a  dispute  in   the   London 

257  s 


258  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

building  trades,  a  few  years  ago,  a  poster  was  used  to  give 
publicity  to  the  views  of  one  side.  The  Board  of  Trade 
advertised  largely  during  the  winter  of  191 8-19  with  the 
objects  of  reconciling  householders  to  the  shortage  of  coal,  and 
of  inculcating  economy.  This  work  was  controlled  by  a 
well-known  advertising  man,  my  friend  Mr.  L.  H.  Hartland 
Swann.  The  Government  used  newspaper-advertising  during 
the  dispute  with  miners  and  railway  men  in  February  19 19. 
The  London  General  Omnibus  Company  and  its  allied  traffic 
companies,  already  famous  for  the  restrained  beauty  of  their 
pictorial  posters,  were  instrumental  in  organising  a  movement 
to  use  Advertising  for  the  prevention  of  accidents,  and  these 
'  Safety-first '  advertisements  are  conspicuous  examples  of 
non-commercial  publicity.  Possibly  there  is  no  connection 
between  the  two  facts  :  but  in  the  year  after  these  '  Safety- 
first  '  advertisements  were  begun,  the  London  General 
Omnibus  Company  paid  an  increased  dividend.  Posters, 
designed  to  teach  travellers  how  to  use  the  trains,  have  been 
displayed  in  the  London  Underground  Railways — you  are 
asked  to  step  off  quickly,  to  move  down  the  carriage  instead 
of  lingering  at  the  doors,  not  to  push  your  way  into  a  crowded 
train,  not  to  enter  a  train  that  has  started,  and  so  forth.  Some 
manufacturers  and  commercial  firms  have  used  what  is  called 
'  institutional '  Advertising  :  instead  of  advertising  their  wares 
they  advertised  the  firm,  I  believe  that  financial  announce- 
ments and  company-issues  in  the  future  will  not  be  confined 
to  the  traditional  dry-as-dust  prospectus-form  hitherto  used. 
The  example  of  the  Irish  Linen  Industries,  which  have 
lately  appropriated  jCgOyOOO  to  the  object  of  advertising  linen 
in  the  United  States,  will,  as  I  have  reason  to  believe,  be  fol- 
lowed in  the  near  future,  and  probably  before  this  is  printed, 
by  some  other  large  co-operative  advertising  in  another 
textile  trade.  Large  sums  were  raised  for  charities,  long 
before  the  War,  by  advertising.  Thus  there  is  evidently  an 
opportunity  for  some  remarks  on  Advertising  that  does  not 
merely  aim  at  selling  goods. 


APPENDIX  259 


II 


I  will  first  deal  with  War  Advertising.  In  1 9 1 3  recruitment 
for  the  Army  was  rather  slow.  It  had  been  promoted  exactly 
as  an  old-fashioned,  unprogressive  business  is  promoted.  The 
change  to  modern  methods  (which  resulted  from  a  perfectly 
casual  conversation  on  the  golf-links  between  Col.,  now  Gen. 
Seely  and  Mr.,  now  Sir  Hedley  Le  Bas)  was  exactly  like  the 
change  in  a  business  which  puts  off  the  old  aspects  and  becomes 
modernised.  Recruits  had  been  obtained  through  the  repu- 
tation of  the  Army  as  a  concern  where  there  was  always  a 
place  for  a  man  out  of  a  job,  and  where  no  inconvenient 
questions  were  pressed.  Outside  barracks  and  police  stations, 
and  in  similar  positions,  boards  of  formal  and  not  very  legible 
type  explained  the  conditions  of  service.  A  great  innovation 
was  felt  to  have  been  effected,  some  twenty  or  thirty  years 
ago  (the  latest  change  of  copy  !),  when  coloured  pictures  of 
impossible-looking  soldiers  in  review-kit  were  added  to  the 
legal-document  announcement.  A  man  very  ardently  desirous 
of  getting  into  the  Army  might,  by  the  help  of  the  acute  and 
trained  intellect  known  to  distinguish  the  type  of  men  who 
used  to  enlist  (as  a  last  refuge)  in  His  Majesty's  forces,  find 
out  what  was  going  to  happen  to  him.  He  might  do  so, 
I  mean,  if  he  had  had  some  literary  training  and  knew  how 
to  pick  out  the  facts  which  he  required.  Lacking  this,  but 
with  the  fortunate  aid  of  a  police-sergeant  acquainted  with 
the  topography  of  the  district,  he  might  find  his  way  to  the 
recruiting-oflice.  But  he  would  be  very  unlikely  to  experi- 
ence a  call  to  arms,  the  result  of  an  enthusiasm  created  in  his 
bosom  by  the  language  of  the  announcement,  unless  he  had 
already  decided  that  it  was  the  Army  or  nothing  for  him,  at 
the  particular  juncture.  In  fact,  he  was  just  like  the  customers 
of  an  old-fashioned  manufacturer.  If  they  wanted  a  given 
commodity,  they  might,  with  some  pains,  find  out  where  to 
buy  it  ;  but  nothing  was  done  to  make  them  want  this  com- 
modity, unless  a  salesman  from  the  grocer's  (we  will  say) 
was  *  pushing '  the  goods  when  he  called  for  orders  at  the 


26o  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

side  door.  And  that  is  a  slow  process.  Correspondingly, 
recruiting-sergeants  with  coloured  ribbons  appeared  from  time 
to  time  in  country  places,  and  by  persuasion,  not  always 
unaccompanied  by  beer,  brought  in  a  few  customers — I  mean 
recruits.  The  expense  of  enlisting  a  man  was  about  thirty 
shillings,  as  I  understand  :  and  not  quite  enough  men  were 
obtained  to  keep  the  cadres  filled.  But  it  was  a  peaceful 
time,  and  this  did  not  appear  to  matter. 

As  a  consequence  of  the  Seely-Le  Bas  conversation  in 
November  19 13,  Mr.  (now  Sir  Hedley)  Le  Bas  persuaded  the 
War  Office  to  take  the  job  seriously^-exactly  as  an  advertising 
agent  sometimes  induces  a  manufacturer  to  take  a  modernised 
interest  in  his  selling.  A  pamphlet  on  the  advantages  of  the 
Army  was  prepared — I  was  myself  consulted  upon  it  in  a 
professional  capacity — ^and  this  pamphlet  was  offered  in  full- 
page  advertisements  for  recruits,  published  in  daily  papers. 
As  a  consequence,  the  Army  obtained  in  a  couple  of  months 
all  the  recruits  needed  for  the  year — ^as  the  year  then  looked 
to  the  War  Office  and  the  authorities  at  the  Horse  Guards — 
and  obtained  them  at  a  cost  of  about  loj.  instead  of  30J.  a 
head.i 

But  the  Military  Authorities  were  to  have  a  rude  awaken- 
ing. On  the  day  that  war  was  declared,  Mr.  Le  Bas  was 
sent  for  in  haste.  He  immediately  formed  the  famous 
Recruiting  Committee  for  advertising  purposes.  It  consisted 
entirely  of  vocational  advertising  men,  including  myself,  and 
at  once  began  to  insert  in  newspapers  some  advertisements 
very  unlike  the  old  police-station  announcements.  The 
poster-work  simultaneously  undertaken  was  conducted  by  a 
different  body,  of  which  I  know  nothing  except  that  this 
body  frequently  adopted  our  lines  of  argument  and  thereby 
attracted  comment — usually  unfriendly. 

One  fact  in  connection  with  the  work  of  the  Le  Bas 

1  It  is  right  to  say  that  the  Army  itself  had  previously  become  a 
little  uneasy  about  recruiting.  There  had  been  a  recruiting-stand  at 
one  of  the  popular  exhibitions  in  London  the  previous  year,  and  I 
was  privately  consulted  by  an  of&cer  on  the  preparation  of  some 
literature  for  distribution  there.  The  matter  was  unofficial ;  and  the 
of&cer,  I  believe,  paid  my  consultation-fee  out  of  his  own  pocket. 


APPENDIX  261 

Committee,  and  indeed  with  very  nearly  the  whole  of  the 
official  advertising,  deserves  mention.  Newspapers  were  not 
asked  to  insert  the  recruiting  advertisements  gratuitously. 
The  United  States  Government,  when  it  presently  entered 
the  War,  obtained  its  newspaper  space  for  nothing.  Some 
of  the  space  was,  in  the  language  of  the  country,  '  donated ' 
by  the  newspapers  themselves.  The  remainder  was  the  gift 
of  advertisers,  who  very  unselfishly  made  their  country  a 
present  of  it,  sometimes  not  even  stipulating  for  a  line  of 
acknowledgment  at  the  end.  The  Le  Bas  Committee 
worked  without  payment  ;  but  the  space  was  bought,  though 
at  commercial  rates — not  at  the  old  '  official '  rate  which 
newspapers  had  the  patriotic  habit  of  extorting  from  the 
Government. 

The  note  of  these  Recruit-advertisements  was  emotional. 
They  appealed  to  patriotism.  Their  appeal  was  not  in  vain. 
Kitchener's  Army  of  the  Glorious  Uncompelled,  which  saved 
the  country  in  the  awful  autumn  of  19 14  when  the  Old  Con- 
temptibles  had  been  so  hard  hit  and  had  made  such  splendid 
sacrifices,  was  the  fruit  of  the  Le  Bas  Committee's  work. 

The  first  War  Loan  marked  the  beginning  of  a  new  era 
in  financial  Advertising.  Sir  Hedley  Le  Bas  was  responsible 
for  this  also.  The  advertisements  were  not  written  by  the 
Recruiting  Committee,  but  in  about  equal  amounts  by  two 
members  of  it,  acting  in  a  professional  capacity.  This,  and 
the  subsequent  brilliant  War  Bond  campaign  conducted  by 
my  friend  Sir  G.  A.  Sutton,  might  perhaps  be  said  to  have 
been  commercial  in  nature,  since  those  who  responded  to  the 
announcements  received  very  good  value  for  their  money. 
But  it  cannot  be  questioned  that  the  policy  behind  the 
War  Savings  advertisements  was  uncommercial.  The  appeal 
was  to  patriotism,  not  to  covetousness,  though  the  keenest 
investor  could  not  have  done  better  with  his  money. 

A  less  showy,  but  exceedingly  useful,  series  of  advertise- 
ments, also  of  a  financial  character,  enabled  the  Government 

»  The  advertisements  issued  by  the  Le  Bas  Committee  were  written 
jointly  across  the  table.  No  member  of  the  Committee  has  the  right 
to  describe  himself  as  the  '  author  '  of  them,  or  of  any  one  of  them. 


262  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

to  acquire  control  of  British  investments  in  foreign  securities. 
This  control  had  great  importance  in  stabilising  the  rate  of 
exchange,  and  improving  it.  The  result  was  to  increase  the 
purchasing  power  of  the  {,  sterling,  and  it  can  be  said  with 
truth  that  the  real  effect  of  these  advertisements  was  to  make 
food  and  munitions  cheaper. 

Labour  was  obtained  for  munition  work  by  means  of 
Government  advertisements,  prepared  and  issued  by  Sir  Hedley 
Le  Bas.  They  were  as  much  unlike  the  usual  '  situations 
vacant '  style  of  advertisement  as  the  War  Loan  and  War 
Bond  advertisements  were  to  the  old  style  of  financial  publicity. 

Without  Advertising,  and  advertising  of  a  highly  modern 
kind,  conducted  by  professional  advertising  men,  free  from 
the  blighting  effect  of  Civil  Service  control,  it  is  certain  that 
the  thousands  of  millions  sterling,  the  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  workers — the  voluntary  army  which  (in  a  sense)  settled 
the  War — could  not  have  been  obtained.  Old-fashioned  copy 
and  the  typographical  displays,  calculated  to  repel  rather  than 
attract,  which  used  to  be  employed  for  official  announcements, 
would  never  have  done  the  business.  So  many  people  have 
*  won  the  War '  that  one  finds  a  difficulty  in  setting  forth  the 
modest  claim  of  Advertising  and  the  advertising  profession 
to  have  helped  a  little.  They  did  not  '  win  the  War.'  The 
War  was  won  by  the  men  who  bore  the  brunt  of  it — soldier, 
sailor,  airman,  engineer,  and  the  gallant  trawler-crews  who 
swept  the  sea  of  mines  ;  not  by  any  civilian,  any  statesman, 
in  a  sense  not  by  any  General  or  Field-marshal,  but  by  the 
valour  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  British  Empire,  France, 
Italy,  and  America.  But  as  they  could  not  have  won  it  without 
leadership,  without  munition-work,  without  food-control,  and 
a  dozen  other  things,  so  they  could  not  have  won  it  without 
the  aids  which  Advertising  brought. 

Ill 

A  municipality  advertises,  normally,  with  the  object  of 
perfecting  its  own  public  services.  Managing  a  town  or  city 
is  an  expensive  business.     Good  management  benefits  all  the 


APPENDIX  263 

inhabitants  ;  but  the  inhabitants  do  not  like  the  rate  of  local 
taxation  to  be. raised.  They  will  put  out  of  office  an  adminis- 
tration that  is  too  enterprising,  if  the  rates  rise  very  much. 

Consequently,  a  municipality  that  wants  to  make  progress 
must  first  find  more  ratepayers  to  tax.  It  can  find  them  by 
advertising  for  them.  Another  kind  of  municipal  adver- 
tising is  that  used  by  seaside  places,  spas,  and  other  holiday 
resorts,  to  attract  visitors  who  will  fill  the  coffers  of  the  local 
shopkeepers.  It  is  often  financed  by  the  voluntary  contribu- 
tions of  those  who  expect  to  be  benefited.  It  is  then,  as 
a  rule,  pretty  bad.  The  fact  that  it  has  a  certain  amount 
of  result — though  it  has  nothing  like  the  result  which  it  might 
have  under  competent  management — only  serves  to  illustrate 
the  enormous  potency  of  Advertising. 

Municipal  Advertising  of  a  more  serious  character  is 
used  by  a  number  of  manufacturing  cities,  and  is  usually 
managed  by  a  committee  of  the  Corporation,  A  good  deal 
of  money  is  wasted  through  amateur  management,  and  there 
are  enterprising  people  who  know  how  to  exploit  this  amateur 
management  for  their  own  benefit.  These  things  are 
managed  better  in  America,  where  every  considerable  city  has 
its  Advertising  Club,  willing  and  eager  to  take  charge  of  the 
job  for  nothing. 

Examples  of  very  competent  management  are  not  unknown 
in  this  country,  however  :  and  the  most  intelligible  treat- 
ment of  the  subject  will  be  to  select  one  of  them.  Readers 
of  The  Times  are  familiar  with  the  name  of  the  Sheffield 
Development  Department,  organised  by  a  committee  of  the 
Corporation.  This  committee  has  contracted  for  a  series  of 
advertisements  in  a  number  of  newspapers,  notably  in  that 
very  valuable  and  important  publication.  The  Times  Trade 
Supplement,  in  the  Engineering  Supplement  of  the  same  daily, 
and  elsewhere,  selecting  papers  read  by  consumers  of  Sheffield's 
chief  products.  In  these  advertisements,  the  eligibility  of 
Sheffield  as  a  site  for  manufacturers  is  announced,  with  an 
offer  of  printed  matter  ;  and  the  civic  announcement  is  sur- 
rounded by  the  individual  advertisements  of  firms  in  Sheffield, 
who  pay  for  a  proportionate  share  of  the  whole  space.     Thus 


264  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

at  small  expense,  the  Development  Department  sends  its 
message  to  the  right  public,  and  the  local  manufacturers  send 
their  announcements  to  prospective  customers,  reinforced  by 
their  neighbourhood  to  an  official  notice. 

But  this  is  only  the  groundwork  of  the  scheme  :  it  is 
only  the  method  by  which  the  Corporation  comes  into  touch 
with  what  I  called,  in  the  Lecture  on  Mail-Order  Adver- 
tising, '  live  prospects.'  No  one,  presumably,  replies  to  such 
advertisements  unless  he  is  really  thinking  of  a  move.  There- 
fore every  inquirer  is  worth  careful  treatment.  The  piece 
of  printed  matter  which  the  Development  Department  sends 
to  inquirers  contains  a  comprehensive  statement  of  the  case 
in  favour  of  Sheffield.  It  shows  what  waterways,  roads,  and 
railways  serve  the  City  of  Splendid  Steel.  It  shows  the 
proximity  of  Sheffield  to  coal-measures,  tells  what  the  freight 
of  manufactured  goods  will  cost  to  various  ports,  and  even 
shows  whereabouts  there  are  satisfactory  residential  places 
in  the  neighbourhood.  The  inquirer  is  told  about  the  low 
death-rate,  the  local  cost  of  electric  current,  gas,  water,  coal, 
and  other  things  ;  and  also  the  current  rate  of  local  taxation. 
But,  above  all,  what  the  *  prospect '  is  told  is  this  :  that  if  he  will 
explain  confidentially  his  requirements  in  the  way  of  a  factory 
or  a  site,  the  Development  Department  will  send  one  of  its 
trained  men  to  go  over  the  ground,  and  find  him  what  he 
wants,  or  rather  something  that  looks  sufficiently  like  being 
what  he  wants  to  justify  his  coming  to  Sheffield  to  look  at 
it.  When  he  arrives,  he  is  met,  driven  to  the  property,  and 
conducted  to  every  place  where  it  seems  likely  that  he  will 
find  a  home  for  his  factory.  He  is  introduced  to  estate  agents, 
architects,  and  others,  if  he  desires.  He  is  given  the  use  of 
the  Department's  records,  and  its  large-scale  maps.  He  is 
helped  in  every  possible  way  to  find  out  whether  Sheffield 
will  suit  him — and  all  this  without  a  penny  of  expense  for  the 
service,  and  without  the  slightest  breath  of  obligation. 

American  municipalities  have  a  practice  of  relieving  a 
new-comer  from  local  taxation  during  a  period  of  years,  as 
an  inducement.  Some  of  them  have  also  had  much  success 
in  using  another  kind  of  non-commercial  advertising.     In 


APPENDIX  265 

one  city  the  municipal  tramway  service  was  not  very  popular — 
as  the  London  County  Council  tramway  service  is  deservedly 
unpopular  now.  But  this  Aqierican  city  published  advertise- 
ments in  the  local  papers,  explaining  certain  difficulties  which, 
in  the  nature  of  things,  could  not  be  immediately  overcome  : 
and  the  result  was  that  the  people  became  reconciled  to  the 
imperfections  of  the  tramway  system,  and,  by  tolerating  them, 
so  raised  the  revenue  from  the  service,  that  there  was  money 
enough  to  improve  it  ;  when  the  grievances  were  removed 
altogether. 


IV 

The  Safety-first  advertising  initiated  by  the  London 
General  Omnibus  Company  is  a  useful  public  service.  This 
mode  of  life-saving  is  another  use  of  advertising  which 
originated  in  the  United  States.  The  earliest  example  of 
it  was  the  famous  *  Stop  !  Look  !  Listen  ! '  sign  adopted  by 
one  of  the  railroads.  Owing  to  its  enormous  length,  the 
permanent  way  of  American  railroads  cannot  be  fenced  oflF 
and  protected  as  in  this  comparatively  small  country,  where 
even  a  level  crossing  here  and  there  is  regarded  as  something 
of  a  public  scandal.  That  is  why  a  cowcatcher  in  front  of 
the  engine  is  an  American  invention  :  there  are  level  crossings 
almost  all  along  the  line.  People  were  always  being  run 
over,  until  someone  thought  of  putting  up  a  big  sign  wherever 
a  road  crossed  the  line.  Characteristic  American  brevity 
boiled  the  warning  down  to  three  words — '  Stop  1  Look  ! 
Listen  ! '  and  these  three  words  saved  a  large  number  of  lives. 
Americans  are  brief  in  all  their  public  announcements.  In 
a  park  they  do  not  say,  '  Visitors  are  requested  to  walk  only 
on  the  gravel  paths  '  ;  they  say  *  Keep  off  the  grass  '  ;  and  they 
say  it  so  often  that  an  American  child  distinguished  England 
as  the  country  where  she  was  allowed  to  walk  on  grass — for 
the  first  time  in  her  life. 

Spending  money  to  make  it  easier  for  people  to  travel 
without  accidents  may  or  may  not  be  a  profitable  commercial 
investment.     Looked   at   cold-bloodedly,   it   would   probably 


266  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

cost  the  allied  traffic  companies  less  to  pay  what  compensation 
might  be  exacted  for  mishaps  for  which  liability  could  be 
brought  home  to  them.  And  as  it  is  pretty  difficult  to  get 
about  London  without  the  help  of  tubes,  General  Omnibus 
Company's  omnibuses  and  London  United  Tramways  Com- 
pany's cars,  the  odium  created  by  frequent  accidents  would 
probably  not  deprive  the  companies  of  much  traffic.  But 
they  take  a  more  enlightened  view  of  the  subject.  As  I 
pointed  out  in  the  Essay  introductory  to  this  volume,  the 
idea  of  service  is  inherent  in  modern  Advertising  :  and 
assuredly  the  '  Safety-first '  campaign  is  service,  even  in  the 
sense  commercially  attached  to  that  word.     I  believe  it  pays. 

Advertising  for  passenger  traffic,  perhaps,  only  comes 
within  the  scope  of  these  appendicular  chapters  with  a  little 
straining.  It  is  certainly  not  uncommercial.  The  object 
of  it  is  to  sell  transportation.  But,  as  it  was  not  dealt  with 
in  the  lectures,  a  few  lines  about  it  may  be  tolerated. 

The  problems  of  a  railway  directorate  are  (as  has  been 
said  of  the  truth)  seldom  pure,  and  never  simple.  Almost 
always  there  are  great  complications.  Broadly  speaking,  a 
railway  advertises  for  passenger  traffic  because  it  is  very  nearly 
as  cheap  to  haul  a  full  train  as  a  train  partly  empty,  and  a 
long  train  as  a  short  one.  But  only  a  superficial  consideration 
of  the  passenger-traffic  problem  would  suggest  that  all  the 
railway  had  to  do  was  to  sell  as  many  tickets  as  possible. 
The  railway  requires  to  manage  things  a  little  more  definitely 
than  that.  It  must  sell  enough  tickets  to  fill  trains.  The 
more  accurately  it  can  manage  this,  the  more  successful  its 
efforts  will  have  been,  in  a  commercial  sense.  Whenever 
Advertising  fills  a  train  and  a  quarter,  or  a  train  and  a  half, 
there  is  a  loss  of  efficiency  :  possibly  there  is  even  a  loss  of 
money — it  ought  to  fill  two  whole  trains,  and  fill  them  as 
completely  as  possible. 

•  Evidently  it  is  not  easy  to  plan  for  results  with  the  degree 
of  nicety  which  would  give  this  hundred-per-cent  efficiency. 
And  the  complications  do  not  end  there.  Suppose  the  rail- 
way company  decides  to  boom  a  particular  place — Skegness 
which   is    '  so   bracing '  ;     Swanage  with  its  *  yellow  sands. 


APPENDIX  267 

And  suppose  the  Advertising  is  so  successful  that  Skegness 
and  Swanage  are  choked  with  visitors,  and  still  the  visitors 
keep  on  coming  ?  The  railway  company  will  make  a 
little  more  money  by  taking  the  surplus  population,  justly 
enraged,  a  little  farther  along  the  line.  But  what  will  happen 
to  Skegness  and  Swanage  next  year  ?  How  long  will  it  take 
their  respective  sections  of  the  coast  to  recover  from  the  dis- 
favour infused  into  the  bosoms  of  families  first  disappointed 
of  their  sojourn  in  the  place  which  they  chose,  and  then 
compelled  to  spend  their  holiday  in  another  place,  to  which 
they  did  not  want  to  go  at  all  ? 

Yet  again,  there  is  the  problem  of  the  supply  of  coaches. 
It  does  not  pay  a  railway  company  to  have  its  carriages 
distributed  otherwise  than  according  to  certain  very  compli- 
cated plans  ;  and  it  would  be  very  easy  to  advertise  in  a  way 
which  would  disturb  these  plans.  A  temporary  excess  of 
travel  to  a  section  that  is  '  quiet '  all  the  remainder  of  the 
year  also  creates  problems  of  staff.  A  station  that  can  be 
quite  comfortably  managed  with  a  man  and  a^boy  all  the 
year  round,  requires  a  number  of  porters,  ticket-collectors, 
booking-clerks,  and  other  functionaries  to  cope  with  a  rush 
of  traffic.  The  football  clubs  interested  in  cup  finals  nego- 
tiate in  a  protracted  manner  with  railway  companies  before 
they  decide  to  kick-off  for  the  cup  at  a  particular  place  : 
and  the  questions  are  largely  those  of  adequate  staff  to  handle 
the  crowd.  Big  things  like  this  are  not  so  hard  on  railway 
managers  as  little  things  like  small  stations  with  a  sudden 
influx.  The  policy  behind  any  campaign  of  railway  adver- 
tising is  perhaps  more  difficult  to  settle  than  that  of  any  single 
commercial  campaign,  and  requires  all  the  forethought  which 
I  tried  to  inculcate  in  my  second  Lecture. 

Like  most  things  in  this  country,  railway  advertising 
has  the  nature  of  an  evolution.  It  has  developed,  '  muddling 
through  somehow.'  It  has  not  been  created  to  meet  a  sudden 
condition.  Nearly  everything  is  managed  like  that  in  old 
countries.  Only  new  countries  improvise  an  entire  system. 
At  the  beginning  of  things,  railway  companies,  never  very 
liberal  spenders  (except  for  lawyers'  bills),  believed  themselves 


268  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

to  be  in  possession  of  a  perfectly  good  advertising  medium 
that  would  not  cost  them  anything  at  all,  except  a  little 
printing.  They  observed,  in  the  mid-Victorian  period,  that 
contractors  had  no  difficulty  in  letting  space  on  the  stations 
to  advertisers.  The  invention  of  that  unpleasing  material, 
enamelled  iron,  had  given  a  tremendous  impetus  to  station 
advertising.  ^  If  other  people  were  willing  to  pay  for  space 
on  the  stations,  presumably  the  advertisement  was  good. 
Accordingly,  the  railway  companies  came  to  an  understanding 
among  themselves,  by  which  they  exchanged  space  on  each 
other's  stations,  and  considered  their  advertising  problem 
solved. 

But  it  was  only  the  question  of  a  medium  that  this  system 
of  swapping  decided  for  the  companies.  For  a  long  time, 
they  considered  that  a  time-table,  stuck  on  a  station  wall, 
gave  all  the  publicity  required.  While  you  were  waiting  for 
a  train  in  Glasgow,  you  could  find  out  how  long  it  would 
take  you  to  go  from  Cardiff  to  Penzance,  perhaps  !  The 
pictorial  efforts  of  commercial  advertisers  presently  suggested 
something  bolder.  A  bootmaker  sold  boots,  the  railway 
men  observed,  by  a  poster  consisting  of  a  picture  of  a  boot. 

*  I  owe  to  the  kindness,  and  the  enormous  experience,  of  my  friend 
Mr.  Walter  Hill — the  doyen  of  the  poster  business — a  dramatic  account, 
hitherto  unpublished,  of  the  way  in  which  enamelled  iron  was  first 
introduced  into  railway-station  advertisements.  The  late  Mr.  James 
Wilhng  had  a  contract  for  advertisement-spaces  inside  carriages — 
those  crowded  arches  over  the  luggage-rack,  of  which  some  of  us  are 
old  enough  to  remember  the  universal  existence.  He  was  always 
having  trouble  through  the  destruction  of  the  cards  used,  and  through 
the  pleasant  practice  by  which  the  public  indulged  a  taste  for  making 
indecent  additions  to  the  illustrations.  There  seemed  no  way  to  stop 
it.  Poster-advertisers  suffer  from  the  same  trouble  to  this  day,  and 
certain  designs  which  lend  themselves,  by  accident,  to  this,  have  to  be 
posted  out  of  reach. 

Mr.  Willing  was  being  driven  in  a  hansom  along  Southampton  Row, 
within  sight  of  Mr.  Hill's  present  ofl&ce,  where  he  told  me  the  story, 
when  he  caught  sight  of  a  small  sign,  apparently  made  of  porcelain, 
on  a  shop  front.  Something  unusual  in  its  appearance  made  him  stop 
the  cab.  He  examined  the  sign,  tried  a  pencil  upon  it,  and  asked  the 
shopkeeper  where  he  got  it.  With  the  information  thus  obtained  he  went, 
the  same  afternoon,  to  Birmingham,  and  made  enamelled  iron  very 
nearly  his  own  for  a  good  many  years.  His  capital  Shakespearean 
slogan — '  Willing  "  doth  give  us  a  bold  advertisement  "  ' — stood  him 
in  good  stead,  and  his  successors  still  use  their  fortunate  name  in 
another  very  good  slogan.  They  call  their  business  of  railway-con- 
tracting '  WilUng  Service.' 


APPENDIX  269 

A  manufacturer  of  pianos  showed  a  picture  of  one  of  these 
instruments.  Very  well  !  The  railways  could  do  the  same 
thing  :  and  they  did,  or  thought  they  did.  They  made  posters 
(they  still  make  them,  sometimes)  from  the  picture  of  a 
locomotive,  forgetting  that  they  were  not  trying  to  sell  engines. 
What  they  ought,  logically,  to  have  done,  was  .to  advertise 
the  picture  of  a  railway-ticket.  The  London  &  North- 
western Railway  Company  went  farther  still,  and  made  a 
poster,  used  again  within  the  last  few  years,  out  of  the  front 
entrance  to  Euston  Station  !  This  attractive  structure, 
looking  more  like  a  mausoleum  than  anything  else,  was, 
after  all,  the  germ  of  modern  railway  poster-work.  It  did 
at  least  depict  a  place  to  which  the  railway  was  prepared  to 
take  you  I  But  it  remained  for  some  genius  unknown  to 
fame  to  divine  that  when  a  railway  wants  to  advertise,  the 
subject  of  its  announcements  should  be,  not  the  railway, 
nor  the  locomotive,  nor  the  time-table,  but  the  places  which 
the  railway  serves — with  as  little  as  possible  about  the  rail- 
way at  all,  and  preferably  nothing.  The  railway  does  not 
wish  its  customers  to  think  about  the  price  of  the  ticket,  nor 
about  the  noise  of  the  engine,  but  about  the  pleasures  of  going 
somewhere. 

Much  the  same  evolution  has  been  undergone  by  steanrt- 
ship  advertising,  though  not  with  the  same  completeness  ;  and 
the  P.  &  O.  (which  has  a  well-managed  advertising  depart- 
ment), the  White  Star,  and  other  lines,  still  make  great  use 
of  seascapes  and  big  ships.  It  would  probably  be  better  to 
show  the  interior  comforts  of  these  vessels,  as,  indeed,  many 
steamer-advertisements  do.  The  spectacle  of  a  picturesque 
ocean,  with  '  white-caps '  and  the  waves  which  no  artist  can 
resist,  is  only  too  calculated  to  awaken  the  hideous  dread  with 
which  99  per  cent  among  the  citizens  of  the  most  maritime 
nation  in  the  world  contemplate  a  sea- voyage. 

Publicity  for  both  railways  and  steamer  lines  is  in  its 
infancy.  Very  little  true  Advertising  is  done  for  either. 
It  is  one  characteristic  of  Advertising,  as  distinguished  from 
mere  public  announcement,  that  it  creates  new  wants,  and  does 
not  merely  direct  an    existing   demand.     Traffic-advertising 


270  CO]\IMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

should  be  organised  to  create  new  traffic.  The  holiday 
resort  advertisements  of  the  railways  do  this.  But  it  ought 
to  be  possible  to  go  much  further.  A  well-organised  adver- 
tising department  for  traffic  promotion  would  try  to  create 
new  all-the-year-round  traffic. 

Some  rather  feeble  posters  at  Liverpool  Street  Station  and 
elsewhere  really  do  make  a  bid  in  this  direction.  They 
announce  the  desire  of  the  Great  Eastern  Railway  to  promote 
business  like  egg-preserving,  &c.,  at  suitable  places  on  its 
line  :  and  this  is  one  of  the  few  efforts  of  railway  companies 
to  advertise  for  goods  traffic.  It  is  very  likely  that  these 
posters  are  symptomatic.  Perhaps  the  Great  Eastern — a, 
very  energetic  and  well-managed  line — is  doing  more  than 
meets  the  eye.  However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  a 
railway  company  could,  under  suitable  advertising  manage- 
ment, create  a  vast  amount  of  new  business. 

In  order  to  do  this  it  would  be  necessary  to  be  a  little 
bit  broad-minded.  The  railway  must  be  forgotten  for  a 
time  and  the  development  of  a  piece  of  territory  made  the 
subject  of  consideration.  Some  research  work,  of  the  kind 
contemplated  in  the  second  half  of  my  sixth  Lecture  within,^ 
would  have  to  be  done.  Competent  observers  would  be  sent 
to  the  ground.  They  would  investigate  the  opportunities 
offered  in  various  districts  served  by  the  railway  which 
employed  them — what  natural  resources  awaited  develop- 
ment, what  manufactures  and  trades  could  be  profitably 
carried  on,  what  chances  were  being  neglected.  They  would 
not  confine  their  ambitions  to  big  business.  They  would 
remember  that  the  total  traffic  derivable  from  a  given 
region  was  their  objective.  If  it  seemed  a  case  for  intensive 
development  by  small  concerns  they  would  go  after  the  small 
concerns. 

Consider,  for  a  moment,  the  possibilities  of  fruit- farming 
as  a  feeder  of  the  railway  systems.  It  was  said,  before  the 
War,  that  a  small  man  who  went  to  great  expense,  and 
employed  untiring  industry,  in  raising  soft  fruit,  had  to  pay 
so  much  to  get  it  to  market,  and  was  so  ill-served  by  the 
^  P.  241  ei  seq. 


APPENDIX  271 

railways,  that  he  could  hardly  make  a  living  at  the  game.  It 
was  shown  that  sometimes  delivery  was  so  slow  that  fruit 
deteriorated,  and  fetched  a  poor  price,  or  became  totally 
unsaleable  (so  that  all  that  the  grower  got  for  his  trouble 
was  the  privilege  of  paying  freight  for  goods  that  he  could 
not  sell)  ;  and  some  effort  was  made  to  organise  co-operative 
road-haulage  by  steam  wagons  of  the  modern  rubber-tyred 
*  Sentinel '  type,  which  is  superseding  the  old  lorries,  and  in 
many  parts  of  the  country  making  it  practicable  to  compete 
with  railways  for  goods  traffic. 

A  skilful  promoter  of  railway  traffic  could  do  much  to 
extend  fruit-growing.  He  might  go  very  far,  in  this  direc- 
tion, from  his  more  obvious  functions.  In  Canada,  and  in 
California,  and  some  other  parts  of  the  United  States,  fruit- 
growing has  been  organised  until  it  is  a  real  business,  very 
unlike  the  haphazard,  trust- to-Providence  job  that  it  is  in 
this  country.  Mr.  Colville  Stewart's  business  in  branded 
'  Malvern '  tomatoes  and  *  Malvern '  cucumbers  has  few 
imitators  as  yet,  and  not  many  farmers  have  his  energy  and 
keen  business  sense.  They  need  to  be  taught  to  do  here 
what  their  fellows  across  the  Atlantic  have  learned  to  do 
for  themselves.  In  Canada,  the  Provincial  Governments 
interest  themselves  in  the  apple-business.  A  farmer  has  to 
spray  his  trees  and  grade  his  crop.  He  is  not  allowed  to 
'  top '  his  barrels,  putting  inferior  apples  in  the  lower  part. 
A  wormy  apple  is  almost  an  unknown  phenomenon  in  a 
Canadian  barrel.  In  California  and  Florida,  oranges,  lemons, 
apples,  walnuts,  and  other  fruits  are  collected  from  the 
growers,  graded,  packed,  and  advertised  co-operatively,  with 
the  result  that  acreages  have  enormously  increased,  the 
grower  is  no  longer  at  the  mercy  of  capricious  markets, 
and  the  fruit,  enormously  improved  in  quality,  fetches  a 
price  which  pays  a  huge  profit  on  the  cost  of  this  work 
of  organisation. 

A  great  deal  of  missionary  work  was  needed  to  interest 
the  growers  in  such  schemes.  What  is  to  hinder  a  railway 
company  from  shouldering  a  similar  job  in  this  country  ? 
The  men  to  take  up  such  enterprises  as  small  fruit-growing, 


272  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

egg-farming,  poultry-farming,  potato-  and  tomato-growing 
and  the  like,  are,  at  the  time  of  writing,  waiting  for  the  call. 
Great  numbers  of  soldiers,  discharged  after  the  War,  ardently 
desire  an  outdoor  life.  They  do  not  want  to  go  back  to 
shop-counters,  desks,  and  factories.  High  rents  are  an  obstacle 
that  ought  not  to  be  permitted  :  a  landowner  who  contributes 
nothing  to  production,  except  his  abstention  from  preventing 
it,  should  not  be  allowed  to  grab  so  much  of  the  profit  that 
there  is  not  enough  to  make  the  work  of  producing  food 
attractive.  A  proper  and  economic  land-tax  would  do  much 
to  force  land  into  productiveness.  But  co-operative  organisa- 
tion would  make  husbandry  profitable  even  at  the  ridiculous 
rents  which  are  such  a  weight  round  the  neck  of  farming 
that  in  this  country,  until  war  enabled  them  to  exploit  the 
market,  farmers  were  nearly  always  poor,  while  in  America 
and  Canada  they  are  nearly  always  rich.  The  thing  only 
awaits  an  organiser  of  genius  ;  and  in  any  English-speaking 
country  but  this,  railway  companies  would  supply  the  man, 
and  make  a  well-earned  profit  out  of  his  work.  I  know, 
personally,  one  man  of  great  business  ability,  who  owns  an 
egg-farm  in  Kent,  and  can  sell  all  the  eggs  that  his  hens 
are  able  to  produce  under  the  most  persuasive  treatment, 
at  the  top  market-price.  He  packs  and  dispatches  by  rail 
thousands  of  eggs  every  day,  to  the  great  profit  of  the  railway 
company,  and  was  making  money  for  himself  in  war  time, 
with  feed  and  every  other  purchase  at  terrific  prices,  within 
eighteen  months  after  he  took  possession  of  the  bare  land. 
Why  do  not  railway  companies  do  something  to  promote 
such  work  as  this,  instead  of  merely  waiting  for  it  to  be 
promoted  by  someone  else  ? 

Having  found  the  field  for  development  (and  of  course 
farming  is  only  one  example,  chosen  at  random),  a  railway- 
traffic  organiser  would  visit  the  farmers  on  the  ground, 
persuade  them  to  meet,  and  show  them  how  to  work  co- 
operatively. He  would  look  for  new  ground  available,  and 
bring  people  to  it.  He  would  also  prepare,  or  cause  to  be 
prepared,  suitable  pamphlets,  books,  and  other  printed  matter. 
He  would  not  be  content  to  explain  how  desirable  he  thought 


APPENDIX  273 

it  for  people  to  come  to  this  part  of  the  country.  He  would 
present  facts  ;  he  would  go  into  details  ;  he  would  collect 
statistics.  He  would  show  how  the  work  could  be  done,  as 
I  showed,  in  a  book  written  Yor  a  land  company  in  British 
Columbia  several  years  ago,  how  dairy-farming  was  organised 
there.  He  would,  in  fact,  create  a  working  text-book,  and 
direct  readers  to  other  practical  books  supplementing  it,  in 
order  that  nobody  whom  he  succeeded  in  interesting  might 
go  into  the  business  without  understanding  quite  clearly  what 
he  was  going  to  do,  what  profits  he  might  expect  to  make, 
and  what  losses  from  climatic  and  other  accidents  were  liable 
to  overtake  him. 

The  organiser  would  also  make  himself  acquainted  with 
the  editors  of  technical  publications,  who  would  have  a  natural 
interest  in  helping  him.  They  would  perceive  that  he  was 
working  for  their  benefit,  and  doing  it  for  nothing — so  far 
as  they  would  be  concerned.  He  would  be  creating  for  them 
new  readers,  and  new  customers  for  their  advertisers.  They 
could  be  relied  upon  to  pull  with  all  their  weight  for  his  scheme, 
and  to  give  him  much  valuable  free  advertising. 

In  all  this  there  would  be  not  a  word  about  freights, 
nothing  about  the  railway,  unless  the  railway  company  was 
making  new  stations,  organising  collections,  and  so  forth  : 
and  then  only  incidentally.  The  railway-man  would  not  be 
advertising  the  railway  in  any  ordinary  sense.  He  would 
be  advertising  the  district.  And  of  course  the  same  thing 
could  be  done  in  a  great  many  parts  of  the  country  for  a 
great  many  industries.  Research-workers  would  be  con- 
stantly discovering  opportunities  and  inventing  ideas  :  often 
they  would  no  doubt  make  some  expensive  investigations  with 
no  result  except  the  knowledge  that  a  particular  scheme 
would  not  work. 

Railway  companies  have,  in  the  past,  done  very  little  to 
advertise  for  goods  traffic.  They  have  employed  travellers 
and  agents  to  do  a  little  canvassing.  That  is  about  all.  There 
were  difficulties  in  the  way  of  advertising  directly  for  freight. 
I  hope  to  have  shown,  above,  the  great  possibilities  offered  by 
a  system  of  advertising  for   it   indirectly.      Incidentally,   of 


274  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

course,  companies  who  followed  this  line  of  policy  would  be 
doing  a  great  service  to  industry  and  commerce  and  helping 
the  nation  to  pay  for  the  War. 


Insurances  of  all  kinds  are  examples  of  intangible  utilities 
sold  by  being  advertised.  They  are  not,  any  more  than 
railway  tickets  or  freights,  uncommercial  subjects  of  Adver- 
tising ;  but  as  they  are  not  ponderable  merchandise,  and  were 
not  discussed  in  the  Lectures,  a  few  remarks  will  be  allowable 
here. 

It  is  curious  that  the  only  insurances  that  have  been  at 
all  vigorously  advertised  in  this  country  should  be  those 
which  are  least  profitable  to  the  insurers,  and  most  difficult 
to  push.  The  Eagle,  Star  &  British  Dominions  Company 
has,  during  the  last  year  or  two,  advertised  insurance  against 
numerous  contingencies,  and  its  '  All-in '  policy,  covering 
almost  everything  which  can  happen  to  property,  has  given 
the  company  a  splendid  commodity  to  talk  about.  But, 
of  course,  the  kind  of  insurance  which  brings  the  biggest 
return  per  sale  to  the  insurer,  and  represents  to  the  insured 
an  investment  instead  of  an  expense,  is  life  insurance.  And 
life  insurance  has  never  been  really  advertised  in  a  modern 
way  in  any  country  The  big  selling-point  has  always  been 
missed.  The  finest  opportunity  in  the  world  for  emotional 
advertising  is  neglected. 

Insurance-managers  seem  to  think  that  the  one  object 
of  concern  to  a  man  who  is  going  to  insure  his  life  is  security. 
In  the  face  of  their  unquestionable  experience,  which  ought 
to  make  their  opinion  supreme,  I  have  the  temerity  to  believe 
them  wrong.  One  company — the  '  old  '  Equitable — does 
persistently  ignore  the  security  argument  or  takes  it  for 
granted,  and  builds  its  case  on  'return.'  Other  insurers 
have  used  this  argument  from  time  to  time  ;  but  the  Equit- 
able's  steady  campaign  in  (for  instance)  the  IVestminster 
Gazette^  consisting  entirely  of  examples,  stands  alone.  The 
examples  are  all  of  one  pattern  :  they  could  not  be  bettered. 


APPENDIX  275 

In  each  announcement  one  completed  contract  is  analysed 
in  the  following  way — I  transcribe  the  one  which  appears 
in  the  Saturday  JVestminster  just  delivered  to  me  : — 

*  T.  B.  L.  effected  an  assurance  with  the  "  Old  Equit- 
able" when  he  was  thirty  years  of  age,  for  ;£  10,000  payable 
at  his  death,  which  occurred  this  year.  The  Society  pays 
;^39,370,  which  is  nearly  four  times  the  original  sum  assured, 
and  three  times  the  total  premiums  paid. 

*  Equitable  Life  Assurance  Society.' 

This  is  undoubtedly  a  good  advertisement.  I  think  I 
know  the  reason  why  other  companies  do  not  use  similar 
copy.  It  has  nothing  to  do  with  insurance.  The  reason 
is  that  insurance-managers  are  not  advertising-men. 

The  fact  that  they  are  not  is  shown  by  the  way  that  they 
spend  their  money,  and  the  copy  that  they  write.  Consider 
for  a  moment  their  practice.  They  spend  great  sums  of 
money  on  framed  cards  of  enormous  size  and  great  hideous- 
ness.  These  are  distributed  to  '  agents '  (sometimes  being 
sent  year  after  year  to  a  man  who  has  never  written  any 
business  except  his  own  life-insurance  contract,  having  got 
himself  appointed  an  agent  in  order  to  obtain  the  commission), 
and  sent  to  solicitors,  land-agents,  and  other  people  who  may 
occasionally  require  to  insure  someone  for  the  sake  of  the 
collateral  security  thus  created.  Another  thing  that  they  do 
is  to  pay  newspapers  to  report  the  annual  meeting,  and  show 
what  fine  speeches  titled  directors  can  make  ;  and  they  print 
incomprehensible  *  tables '  and  little  books  without  one  scrap 
of  creative  salesmanship,  with  an  agent's  name  in  front. 
A  '  live '  agent  uses  a  few  of  these  :  hundreds  of  thousands 
are  printed  with  the  names  of  agents  who  never  have  written 
any  real  insurance,  never  intend  to  write  any,  and  would  not 
know  how  to  write  it  if  the  business  dropped  into  their  laps. 
I  am  not  describing  the  procedure  of  any  one  insurance 
company  :  I  am  describing  that  of  dozens  of  insurance 
companies.  Men  who  can  spend  money  in  this  style 
evidently  are  not  advertising-men. 

The  copy  published   in   this   useless   manner  is  just  as 


276  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

destitute  of  psychological  common  sense  as  the  mode  of 
publication  is  destitute  of  business  sense.  The  three  staple 
subjects  of  announcements  are  : — 

1.  The  reserve  funds  of  the  company. 

2.  The  names  of  the  directors. 

3.  The  picture  of  the  office. 

Now,  I  venture  to  say  that  the  bread-and-butter  income 
of  insurers  all  comes  from  people  vv^ho  are  perfectly  indifferent 
to  all  these  things.  Insurance-managers  are  blinded  by  the 
dazzle  of  the  occasional  big  contracts,  w^ritten  for  financial 
reasons  and  not  prudentially  at  all,  where  security  is  the 
chief  consideration  that  is  perpended.  When  the  ordinary 
man,  on  getting  married,  insures  his  life,  what  he  thinks  most 
about  is  obtaining  the  best  possible  return  for  his  premiums. 
And  even  about  this  he  does  not  think  very,  very  deeply  : 
an  energetic  insurance-agent  who  has  looked  up  a  man  like 
this,  awakened  his  desire  for  life  insurance,  and  used  real 
salesmanship  upon  him,  very  often  loses  the  business  because 
the  bride's  aunt  has  a  poor  relation  who  collects  a  few  pre- 
miums in  his  spare  time,  and  as  dear  Angelina  is  going  to 
be  secured  by  a  policy,  what  is  the  matter  with  poor  old  John 
taking  Edwin  to  his  company  ?  If  poor  old  John  cannot 
pull  it  off  by  himself,  Edwin  being  something  of  a  business 
man,  a  smart  inspector,  coming  to  the  rescue,  saves  the 
bacon  :  for,  to  anyone  without  actuarial  knowledge,  almost 
any  insurance  company  can  produce  a  special  table  which,  by 
manipulating  the  figures  properly,  with  some  dodge  of  reducing 
the  premium  after  the  first  few  years,  or  reducing  it  in  the  first 
few  years,  and  raising  it  after,  or  otherwise,  can  make  out  a 
good  case  for  itself.  I  am  not  saying  anything  against  insur- 
ance or  insurers.  Life  insurance  is  one  of  the  greatest  benefits 
which  human  ingenuity  has  devised  for  the  prevention  of  dis- 
tress ;  and  insurers — I  mean  life-insurance  companies — are  the 
soundest  and  honestest  of  men.  Except  that  some  companies 
are  more  economically  managed  than  others,  and  some  take 
better  advantage  than  others  of  the  longer  lives  enjoyed  by  tee- 
totallers, there  is  probably  not  much  to  choose  between  them. 


APPENDIX  277 

If  you  pay  more,  you  ultimately  get  more.  If  you  insure 
'  without  profits,'  you  pay  lower  premiums,  and  can  invest 
the  difference  somewhere  else  than  with  the  insuring  company, 
thus  putting  your  eggs  in  different  baskets.  If  you  insure 
*  with  profits,'  you  save  yourself  from  the  temptation  to  spend 
the  difference  at  once,  instead  of  banking  it  on  perfectly  sound 
security.  Fancy  tables,  looked  at  by  an  actuary,  give  (as  he 
knows)  pretty  much  the  same  value  for  money.  Competition 
takes  care  of  that.  The  item  for  '  management '  is  the  only 
really  important  difference  between  companies. 

What  insurance-managers  overlook,  because  not  being 
advertising  men  they  have  never  heard  it,  is  that  real  sales- 
manship means  something  more  than  getting  first  to  the 
customer  when  he  is  in  the  market.  It  means  creating  the 
market,  or  rather  creating  in  people's  minds  the  desires  that 
make  them  customers.  For  the  made  customers,  the  Equit- 
able's  plan  of  proving  that  it  gives  splendid  value  for  money 
is  excellent.  It  is  even,  in  a  limited  way,  really  creative. 
Such  an  announcement  as  the  one  which  I  quoted  a  little 
way  back  must  sometimes  make  a  reader  say  '  That  sounds 
like  a  good  investment.     I  will  look  into  it.' 

But  when  you  consider  the  true  possibilities  of  life 
insurance  as  a  subject  for  advertising  copy,  see  how  many 
opportunities  are  missed  !  What  would  happen  if  someone 
went  to  work  and  advertised  life  insurance  as  the  Eagle 
Company  advertises  contingency  insurance,  or  wrote-up  life- 
insurance  as  the  Sun  Life  Company  of  Canada  writes  up 
annuities  ?  Imagine  an  advertisement  writer  like  Mr. 
Haxton,  who  wrote  the  '  Encyclopaedia  Britannica '  adver- 
tisements, let  loose  upon  the  glorious  possibilities  of  life- 
insurance  advertising  !  Think  how  such  a  writer  would 
appeal  to  the  emotions  and  touch  the  heart-strings  :  how  he 
would  drive  home  the  moral — ^that  a  man  who  lives  up  to 
an  income  that  will  perish  with  him,  teaching  his  wife  and 
children  to  require  a  certain  dignity  of  living,  a  certain  standard 
of  comfort,  and  then  dies,  leaving  them  with  an  insurance 
policy  for  a  sum  representing  about  5  per  cent  of  his  income, 
or  no  insurance  at  all,  is  a  cowardly  scoundrel,  who  ought  to 


278  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

be  ostracised  and  booted  out  of  any  decent  club  !  Imagine 
him  when  he  analysed  the  insurance  statistics  of  this  country, 
showing  that  75  per  cent  of  the  men  living  on  a  salary  would 
leave  their  families  in  want  if  a  motor-bus,  in  spite  of  the 
'  Safety-first '  advertisements,  ran  over  them  to-morrow  ! 
Consider  how  the  wives  of  the  nation  could  be  made,  by 
such  Advertising,  to  awaken  their  husbands'  consciences,  and 
how  the  danger  of  delay  which  may  make  a  man  uninsurable 
would  be  painted  in  burning  words  of  perfect  truth  and 
enormous  public  usefulness  !  The  average  insurance  carried 
per  head  of  population  in  this  country  is,  or  was  a  few  years 
ago  when  I  had  occasion  to  hunt  up  the  figures,  less  than 
one-half  that  in  the  United  States.  Yet  America  is  a  spend- 
thrift country  and  this  is  a  thrifty  country — little  as  the  first 
Peace  Budget  would  make  you  think  so.  In  America,  wealth 
is  always  computed  in  terms  of  capital  :  in  Britain  it  is  always 
computed  as  income.  Americans  say  that  a  man  is  worth 
so  many  thousand  dollars.  Here  we  say  that  he  is  worth  so 
much  a  year.  Yet  even  wasteful,  lavish,  spendthrift  America 
— ^and  life-insurance  advertising  in  the  United  States  is  not 
much  better  than  it  is  here  :  not  much  better — insures  itself 
for  twice  what  prudent  Britain,  including  Scotland,  thinks 
sufficient  !  Advertising  could  double,  and  should  be  able  to 
treble,  the  average  amount  that  it  would  cost  the  companies 
for  an  Englishman  to  die,  while  it  would  confer  almost  un- 
imaginable benefits  upon  the  nation  and  prevent  an  almost 
unthinkable  amount  of  suflrering. 

Insurance-managers,  like  other  business  men  who  do 
not  advertise,  are  obsessed  with  a  fear  of  their  travelling 
salesmen.  The  traveller  brings  orders.  He  is  in  direct 
touch  with  the  customers  of  the  firm.  Goodness  knows 
what  might  happen  if  the  traveller's  efforts  were  hampered. 
One  insurance-manager  told  me  that  he  would  be  afraid  to 
advertise  in  a  way  that  would  bring  inquiries  which  he  could 
give  to  his  out-door  men  to  follow  up.  The  out-door  men 
would  waste  so  much  time  on  these,  and  would  be  so  dis- 
couraged by  being  made  to  give  an  account  of  them,  that  they 
would  neglect  their  proper  business  !     Moreover,  there  was 


APPENDIX  279 

always  a  danger  in  educating  an  entirely  new  *  prospect '  to 
consider  insurance.  He  was  not  like  a  man  who  had  already 
come  to  the  point.  You  might  spend  hours  and  hours  in 
convincing  him  that  he  required  insurance  :  and  then  some 
other  company  would  get  the  business  through  a  friend  or 
relative  who  was  a  spare-time  agent. 

Of  course,  if  this  is  true,  insurance  salesmanship  is  wrongly 
organised.  The  companies  could  easily  reform  it.  They 
are  close  enough  together  on  many  sides.  A  man  cannot 
safely  make  the  false  statement  on  a  company's  proposal- 
form  that  he  has  never  been  rejected  by  another  company. 
Actuaries  compare  notes  and  find  out  whether  what  a  proposer 
says  to  one  company  agrees  with  what  he  says  to  another. 
The  companies  should  get  together  on  other  subjects  :  and 
one  thing  that  they  should  do  is  to  cut  out  what  may  be  called 
the  amateur  agent — Angelina's  aunt's  poor  relation — and  the 
agent  who  costs  the  company  money  year  after  year  for  wasted 
advertising  matter  because  he  once  succeeded  in  getting  back 
the  agency-commission  on  his  own  premiums.  But,  even  as 
it  is,  contract-snatching,  such  as  my  friend  feared,  is  exactly 
like  other  kinds  of  Substitution,!  and  can  be  cured  in  the 
same  way.  If  the  advertising  is  strong  enough  to  sell  the 
goods.  Substitution  is  not  strong  enough  to  unsell  them — 
whether  the  goods  are  face-powders  or  insurance-contracts. 
But  the  main  subject  of  life-insurance  advertisements  should 
be  just  life  insurance,  not  companies,  not  reserve  funds,  not 
directors,  not  the  building  where  the  company  lives.  And 
advertisements  so  written  could  be  made  to  prevent  contract- 
snatching  if  they  were  written  properly.  I  believe  it  possible 
to  sell  insurance  by  the  printed  word  alone — to  sell  it  by  post, 
as  a  mail-order  proposition  :  it  is  so  sold  in  America  by  the 
Postal  Life  Company.  But  I  am  certain  that  life  insurance 
could  be  sold  by  the  printed  word,  properly  written,  with 
adequate  following  up  by  professional  agents,  who  should  be 
paid  not  by  a  large  commission  designed  to  reconcile  them 
to  going  without  salary  and  paying  their  own  expenses,  but 
by  a  large  salary  and  a  small  commission.  It  would  pay  a 
*  See  Lecture  IV,  p.  159  et  seq. 


28o  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

concern,  properly  financed  and  advertised,  acting  for  all  life 
companies,  on  the  present  basis  to  advertise  life  insurance 
and  send  its  own  salaried  men  after  the  prospects  obtained  by- 
post,  selling  contracts  for  whatever  company  happened  to  have 
tables  to  suit  the  particular  prospect,  or  whichever  company 
the  agency  happened  to  think  well  of.  Such  a  concern  could 
make  the  companies  pay  it  a  very  heavy  straight  commission — 
a  very  large  part  of  the  first  premium  and  a  percentage  on  all 
renewals,  however  collected — ^and  would  become  rich.  That 
it  could  unquestionably  do  so  is,  incidentally,  a  ground  for 
believing  that  my  plan  of  organised  salesmanship  on  good 
salary  and  trifling  commission  is  the  economical  one. 

But  in  either  case,   everything  would  depend  on  good 
Advertising. 


VI 

Many  industries  could  be  greatly  advanced  and  developed 
in  this  country  by  what  I  have  called  co-operative  Advertising, 
to  increase  the  total  demand  for  their  products.  Such 
Advertising,  essentially  creative  in  its  nature,  would  not 
carry  the  name  of  any  individual  manufacturer,  nor  his  brand, 
though  if  the  advertising  were  only  sustained  by  a  part  of  the 
entire  trade  a  common  trade-mark  might  be  used.  The 
most  important  example  of  co-operative  Advertising  in  this 
country  has  been  that  conducted  by  the  British  Commercial 
Gas  Association.  Benzole,  for  use  as  a  motor-spirit  in  com- 
petition with  petrol,  has  likewise  begun  co-operative  Adver- 
tising. The  Irish  linen  industry  of  Ulster  has  appropriated 
half  per  cent  of  its  turnover  for  co-operative  Advertising  in 
the  United  States.  The  Scottish  Woollen  Trade-Marks 
Association,  Ltd.,  is  a  company  incorporated  under  the  Board 
of  Trade  to  distinguish  and  advertise  tweeds  and  other  cloth 
manufactured  by  a  powerful  group  of  manufacturers  in  the 
south  of  Scotland.  Not  less  than  a  score  of  different  in- 
dustries in  the  United  States  have  combined  for  the  purpose 
of  co-operative  Advertising,  either  public  or  technical. 

British   gas    advertising   has   been    noticeably   successful 


APPENDIX  281 

Of  course  gas,  as  an  illuminating  agent,  is  visibly  on  its  last 
legs.  Only  exorbitant  charges  and  bad  management  on  the 
part  of  the  various  concerns  tljat  sell  current,  has  stood  in  the 
way  of  the  complete  triumph  of  electricity,  and  hardly  a  new 
house  is  built  that  is  not  wired  for  electricity.  Yet  the 
consumption  of  gas  is  steadily  rising.  Advertising  has  pro- 
moted the  use  of  it,  to  some  extent,  even  for  lighting — a 
purpose  for  which  it  is  all  but  obsolete — but  to  an  enormous 
extent  for  heating  and  power.  A  better  example  of  the 
trade-creating  value  of  Advertising  could  not  be  wished. 
The  normal  increase  in  consumption  was  last  year  accelerated 
by  no  less  than  13  per  cent,  which  runs  into  big  figures  with 
a  commodity  like  gas.  There  are  still  many  industries  that 
could  be  co-operatively  advertised,  and  that  would  thence 
derive  great  advantages.  Such  advertising  will  unquestion- 
ably be  an  increasing  phenomenon  of  the  next  few  years, 
and  it  may  be  worth  while  to  consider  some  of  the  problems 
which  it  creates. 

Two  obstacles  have  to  be  overcome  before  an  industry 
can  be  organised  for  combined  advertising.  They  are 
(a)  want  of  unanimity,  and  (b)  mutual  distrust. 

Through  want  of  unanimity,  a  plan  for  co-operative 
Advertising  has  often  fallen  to  pieces  because  a  few  concerns 
in  the  business  declined  to  come  in,  believing  that  they  would 
obtain  as  much  benefit  as  the  subscribers,  without  parting 
with  any  money.  A  promising  co-operative  scheme,  arranged 
by  myself  when  advertisement-manager  of  The  Times,  was 
wrecked  by  the  abstention  of  one  firm.  The  others  refused 
to  spend  their  money  *  for  the  benefit '  (as  they  rudely  put  it) 
'  of  the  hog  who  stayed  in  his  own  sty.' 

Mutual  distrust  is  an  obstacle  where  contributions  to  the 
advertising  fund  are  made  on  the  basis  of  individual  turnover. 
Every  member  of  the  combination  is  liable  to  be  in  a  position 
to  ascertain  the  amount  of  business  which  his  competitors 
are  doing.  I  have  never  been  able  to  understand  why  an 
Englishman  in  business  thinks  it  would  be  fatal  to  his  interests 
for  anyone  else  to  know  how  much  he  is  selling.  Figures 
are  freely  and  willingly  given  out  for  publication  by  the 


282  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

shrewdest  business  men  of  the  United  States,^  and  no 
disasters  follow.  But  this  instinct  of  reticence  is  a  great 
obstacle  to  co-operative  advertising,  just  as  reticence  of 
another  kind  has  hitherto  placed  great  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  scientific  accuracy  in  advertising  statistics.^ 

There  are  plans  by  which  the  reticence  of  manufacturers 
associated  for  co-operative  Advertising  could  be  respected, 
and  a  proper  contribution  from  each  assured.  They  might, 
for  instance,  entrust  a  chartered  accountant,  acceptable  to 
all,  with  the  task  of  examining  their  books  and  collecting 
contributions.  The  total  sum  required  might  be  ascertained, 
and  the  money  collected,  by  the  accountant,  in  proportion  to 
sales  or  production,  or  in  any  agreed  way.  He  would  pay 
the  cheques  into  his  own  banking  account,  and  either  pay 
the  advertising  bills  himself  or  else  transfer  the  funds  to  a 
common  account,  being  restrained  by  oath  or  (if  preferred) 
by  being  put  under  heavy  bonds,  from  letting  the  cat  out  of 
the  bag. 

Another  workable  plan,  and  the  one  adopted  in  its  rules 
and  Articles  of  Association  by  one  of  the  combinations  men- 
tioned above,  is  to  assess  members  according  to  their  plant. 
A  firm  having  so  many  machines  pays  so  much  :  a  firm 
having  twice  the  number  pays  double  as  much,  and  so  on. 
But  this  is  open  to  the  objection  of  favouring  the  factory 
that  is  already  doing  best  by  keeping  its  machines  fully  engaged 
and  perhaps  working  three  shifts  a  day.  Beati  possidentes — 
« to  him  that  hath,  to  him  shall  be  given  :  from  him  that  hath 
not,  shall  be  taken  away.'  Moreover,  the  assessment  would 
fall  most  heavily  upon  factories  that  were  in  difficulties,  were 
working  short  time,  or  had  experienced  a  strike  in  the  course 
of  the  accounting  period. 

A  plan  which  would  work  well  in  trades  where  the  goods 

1  Such  figures  are  constantly  published  in  Printers'  Ink,  New  York. 

'  If  we  could  know  how  much  per  cent  of  sales  is  absorbed  by 
advertising  various  branded  commodities,  many  uncertainties  in  Ad- 
vertising could  be  removed.  Nothing,  of  course,  could  make  it  possible 
to  predict  with  mathematical  exactitude  the  returns  from  a  particular 
announcement ;  but  great  advantages  could  be  obtained  by  a  statistical 
treatment  of  averages.  The  subject  is  touched  upon,  supra.  Lecture  II, 
pp.  106-117. 


APPENDIX  283 

were  being  sold  under  a  common  trade-mark,  would  be  to 
print  labels  applicable  to  uniform  quantities  or  values,  and 
sell  them  to  members  of  the  association  at  a  price  which  would 
represent  the  agreed  advertising  assessment.  This,  again, 
could  be  done  without  divulging  the  individual  statistics  of 
the  members.  The  labels  could  be  entrusted  to  an  accountant 
or  other  neutral  and  confidential  agent,  to  sell  to  members, 
keeping  the  details  to  himself.  No  individual  firm  could 
obtain  the  benefit  of  the  advertisements  without  buying 
labels  to  pay  for  them  :  and  each  would  contribute  to  the 
expense  in  a  manner  justly  proportionate  to  the  benefits  which 
he  knew  himself  to  be  obtaining. 

The  difficulty  of  organising  a  combination  where  the 
entire  trade  has  not  joined  forces  is  not  so  great  as,  on  the 
face  of  it,  might  be  thought.  Business  houses  are  growing 
broader-minded.  When  the  British  Commercial  Gas  Asso- 
ciation began  its  very  competent  and  dignified  advertising, 
only  about  a  third  of  the  companies  and  municipalities  owning 
gas-works  had  joined.  The  advertising  was  inevitably  bound 
to  assist  the  sales  of  all  gas-producing  concerns,  whether  they 
contributed  or  not,  since  the  advertisements  appeared  in  many 
periodicals  of  nation-wide  circulation.  The  second  largest 
gas  company  in  the  kingdom  kept  aloof  for  a  good  many 
years.  But  experience  has  shown,  in  this  and  other  instances, 
that  when  really  competent  advertising  is  done,  the  dissen- 
tients gradually  come  in.  The  National  Benzole  Association 
has  begun  work,  though  I  believe  that  more  than  thirty  and 
less  than  forty  per  cent,  of  the  producers  have  assessed  them- 
selves. The  Sulphate  of  Ammonia  Association  certainly 
does  not  include  all  producers.  The  society  formed  to 
advertise  Irish  linen  in  America  received  the  voluntary 
contributions  of  flax-spinners,  manufacturers  of  spinning- 
machinery  and  of  looms,  and  even  banks,  all  of  whom  would 
necessarily  have  derived  indirect  benefit  from  the  advertising, 
and  need  not  have  given  a  single  penny.  The  breadth  of 
mind  and  commercial  liberality  shown  by  these  examples 
indicate  that  co-operative  Advertising  has  a  hopeful  future. 

The    British    Commercial    Gas    Association    markets    a 


284  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

product  which  cannot  be  trade-marked.  But  in  most  indus- 
tries it  is  quite  easy  to  register  a  common  label  or  otherwise 
to  tie  up  the  advertising  to  the  contributors.  The  question 
then  arises  whether  this  should,  or  must,  supersede  the 
individual  trade-marks  or  brands  of  manufacturers.  It  is 
one  which  must  be  decided  according  to  the  circumstances 
of  the  particular  industry  concerned.  From  time  to  time, 
someone  revives  the  antiquated  notion  of  a  national  trade- 
mark, to  serve  as  a  brand  of  origin,  and  distinguish  British 
goods  at  home  and  abroad.  The  same  project  was  mooted, 
during  191 8,  in  the  United  States.  For  reasons  which 
would  be  irrelevant  here,  all  the  best  authorities  are  agreed 
that  a  national  trade-mark  would  do  more  harm  than  good 
to  a  nation's  trade,  and  whenever  someone  raises  the  question 
anew  (often  believing  himself  to  have  hit  upon  an  original 
and  beneficent  idea),  it  is  found  that  the  principal  firms  in 
every  industry  refuse  to  have  anything  to  do  with  the  scheme, 
and  even  take  energetic  steps  to  kill  it.  The  fact  is,  that  such 
a  mark  of  origin  might  be  a  fine  thing  for  the  producers  of 
poor  stuff  ;  but  it  would  be  a  very  bad  thing  for  the  producers 
of  the  best.  Evidently  such  a  mark  would,  in  any  event, 
be  used  in  addition  to  the  individual  brands  or  trade-marks 
of  manufacturers.  In  America,  the  idea  of  a  national  trade- 
mark has  given  place  to  the  suggestion  that  all  exported  goods 
shall  carry  the  words  '  Made  in  U.S.A.'  In  all  important 
countries  it  is  likely  that  the  fraudulent  use  of  such  a  mark 
could  be  penalised  by  ordinary  legal  proceedings,  which 
afford  better  protection  than  an  action  for  infringement  of 
trade-mark. 


VII 

A  kind  of  Advertising  having  some  analogy  to  co-operative 
Advertising  is  called  institutional  Advertising,  Although  its 
purpose  is  strictly  commercial,  it  can  also  be  included  here, 
because  it  does  not  attempt  directly  to  cause  sales. 

Institutional  Advertising  means  advertising  the  firm 
instead   of  advertising   the   goods.     Mr.    Selfridge's   literary 


APPENDIX  285 

announcements  in  the  London  evening  papers  have,  nearly 
always,  this  character.  It  sometimes  happens  that  a  firm 
suffers  in  reputation  from  some  cause  entirely  disconnected 
with  the  quality  of  its  wares,  and  loses  business  through  the 
prejudice  created.  Institutional  advertisements  can  then  do 
much  to  save  the  situation. 

Institutional  Advertising,  if  well  written,  can  do  much 
to  raise  the  reputation  of  the  advertiser.  The  best-known 
examples  of  it  in  this  country  date  back  to  the  years  1904-6. 
During  that  period.  The  Times  accepted,  at  a  special  rate  of 
payment,  what  may  be  called  guaranteed  announcements. 
These  were  never  of  less  than  two  full  columns'  extent,  and 
formed  series  of  six  insertions  or  over  :  each  carried  at  the  top 
a  paragraph  stating  that  the  announcement  had  been  written 
by  the  Advertisement  Department  of  The  Times,  after  inde- 
pendent investigation  of  the  facts  recited.  Very  great  pains 
were  taken  to  verify  the  statements  printed,  and  to  select  the 
firms  permitted  to  use  this  mode  of  advertisement  :  and  the 
literary  workmanship  of  the  announcements  had  often  great 
merit.  From  the  nature  of  the  circumstances  they  were  not 
advertisements  framed  with  the  object  of  selling  goods.  Often 
they  did  not  mention  specific  commodities  at  all.  I  think 
they  never  quoted  any  prices.  For  this  reason  they  were 
never  regarded  with  the  respect  which  they  deserved  by  the 
canvassing  staff,  who  had  not  vision  enough  to  appreciate 
their  real  advertising  value,  and  even  called  them  by  the  unjust 
and  irreverent  name  of  *  gold-bricks.'  Advertisements  with 
an  independent  guarantee  of  this  nature  are  capable  of  doing 
valuable  service,  both  to  advertisers  and  the  public.  Evidently 
this  is  a  good  way  to  conduct  institutional  Advertising. 

Much  more  than  his  yet  been  attempted  in  this  country 
might  be  done  with  institutional  Advertising.  A  firm  pro- 
ducing articles  of  food,  for  example,  or  a  manufacturer  of 
drugs,  could  usefully  describe  the  methods  used  in  his  factory, 
and  the  general  reputation  of  his  wares  would  be  thus  estab- 
lished. The  independent  guarantee  of  a  newspaper  is  not 
necessary.  If  it  were  thought  desirable  to  call  evidence,  the 
announcements   could    be   signed    by    the    author.      In    the 


286  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

Introduction  to  this  volume,  the  use  of  signed  advertisements, 
which  I  believe  is  destined  to  be  greatly  developed  in  the 
future,  was  discussed  :  and  institutional  Advertising  could  be 
particularly  helped  by  a  signature. 

One  phase  of  Advertising  to  which  the  institutional 
method  has  been,  and  could  often  be,  applied,  may  be  men- 
tioned in  closing.  The  time  when  a  public  company  is 
about  to  invite  subscriptions  for  new  shares,  is  eminently  a 
time  for  institutional  Advertising.  Investors  will  put  their 
money  into  a  concern  that  they  know  and  respect,  far  more 
readily  than  into  one  that  is  strange  to  them.  And,  however 
well  an  institution  is  known,  it  will  obtain  new  capital  far 
more  easily  if  it  has  given  the  public  a  detailed  account  of 
itself  before  asking  for  the  money.  No  company,  and  no 
other  institution,  is  so  important  that  it  can  dispense  with 
Advertising  when  it  requires  funds.  The  Dominion  of 
Canada  and  the  Commonwealth  of  Australia  are  not  above 
advertising  themselves — ^and  doing  very  fine  institutional 
Advertising — when  they  want  population.  Directors  and 
promoters  of  commercial  companies  will  be  wise  to  do 
institutional  Advertising  when  they  want  funds. 

And  financial  Advertising  in  the  future  will  require  to 
be  much  more  efficient  than  in  the  past.  The  War-Bond 
advertisements  have  set  a  new  pace  in  this  department  of 
business.  Notwithstanding  the  diflFerence  visible  in  War- 
Bond  advertising  at  the  moment  Sir  G.  A.  Sutton  let  go, 
and  before  another  professional  advertising-man  took  over 
the  job,  people  who  want  to  finance  new  enterprises  or  issue 
new  shares  in  an  established  one,  will  announce  their  inten- 
tions in  a  new  way  hereafter.  A  stock  prospectus  that  is 
about  as  lively  as  a  funeral,  and  has  the  thrilling  excitement 
of  a  railway  time-table,  is  an  anachronism,  considered  as  the 
sole  publicity  of  an  important  issue.  It  will  not  be  practicable 
to  sell  shares  like  that  on  the  scale  required  in  the  coming 
time. 

From  the  moment  when  the  Government  put  a  live 
advertising-man  in  charge  of  War-savings  publicity — and  gave 
him  the  free  hand  that  he  insisted  upon — ^War  Bonds  and  War- 


APPENDIX  287 

savings  Certificates  began  to  sell  at  an  advertising  ratio  which 
has  no  precedent,  and  is  not  likely  to  have  any  successor. 
Perhaps  patriotism,  and  not  ^  per  cent,  sold  the  bonds. 
But  who  stimulated  this  patriotism  ?  Who  fetched  the 
millions  of  fifteen-and-sixpences  out  of  the  pockets  of  people 
whose  best  investment  before  that  had  been  the  Post  Office 
Savings  Bank  ?  Who  taught  thousands  of  people  who  didn't 
know  a  contango  from  an  Exchequer  Bond  to  take  their  money 
out  of  deposit  account  and  buy  War  Bonds  with  it,  then 
lodging  these  War  Bonds  with  their  bankers  as  a  security 
for  overdraft,  and  using  the  overdraft  to  buy  more  bonds  ? 
Was  it  done  with  announcements  set  up  in  the  engaging 
manner  of  *  Bradshaw's  Guide,'  announcements  that  looked 
at  you  with  fish-like  eye,  and  mentioned  that  the  Government 
was  prepared  to  receive  applications  for  ^^  1,000,000,000 
secured  on  the  consolidated  fund  ?  Not  within  a  hundred 
miles  I  It  was  done  by  painting  a  picture,  in  words  that 
burned  and  sang,  of  the  use  for  which  that  money  was 
wanted. 

Nothing  else  will  do  the  work.  The  day  is  gone  when 
enterprises  can  be  financed  by  the  professional  promoter's 
money  and  the  funds  of  small,  rich  groups.  The  money  of 
the  small  investor  must  be  brought  in.  The  thrift  of  the 
wealthy  must  be  made  to  pay  for  British  enterprise,  instead 
of  being  invested  in  debentures  of  foreign  railways,  the  stock 
of  alien  governments,  and  other  gilt-edged  investments  that 
have  not  turned  out  quite  so  golden  as  they  used  to  look. 
This  cannot  be  accomplished  by  appealing  only  to  the  ordinary 
kind  of  financial  instincts  of  landowners  and  other  people  who 
do  not  spend  all  their  income.  Their  present  idea  of  an 
investment  is  something  that  pays  about  1^  per  cent.,  but 
does  not  need  any  watching.  The  only  way  to  enlist  their 
money  in  the  righteous  cause  of  national  progress  is  to  touch 
their  imagination.  A  concern  that  needs  new  capital  will 
have  to  raise  it  in  the  time  to  come  by  appealing  to  the 
imagination  and  the  sense  of  the  power  and  usefulness  of 
wealth  rightly  used.  People  will  not  be  asked  to  stow  away 
their  money  in  preferred   debentures   issued   by  a   concern 


288  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

that  has  a  zinc-mine  somewhere — they  have  to  hunt  up  the 
prospectus  again  to  make  sure  whether  it  is  in  Australia  or 
Ecuador.  They  will  be  told  what  the  enterprise  is  like, 
what  the  company  does  or  is  going  to  do,  what  the  labours 
or  the  daring  of  the  actual  prospectors  and  managers  accom- 
plished, and  asked  to  take  the  profits  and  risks  of  the  *  ordinary ' 
shareholder,  instead  of  a  small,  safe,  fixed  percentage. 

The  old  kind  of  information  will,  of  course,  also  be  pub- 
lished about  new  issues,  probably  in  much  the  old  form.  It 
is  necessary  information.  It  is  the  only  kind  of  information 
that  would  be  of  any  use  to  one  class  of  investors.  But  before 
the  actual  issue,  there  will  be  preparation.  There  will  be 
well-written,  illustrated,  and  breathlessly  absorbing  institutional 
announcements,  which  will  put  life  into  the  dull  business  of 
trying  to  get  as  much  interest  on  money  as  possible. 

Above  all  and  before  all.  Company  advertising  of  the 
new  kind  must  be  bone-hard  honest.  Every  man  who  is 
allowed  to  write  any  sort  of  advertisement,  whether  of  hams 
or  hardware,  sugar-plums  or  soap,  ought  first  to  have  been 
tested  and  proved  to  have  imagination  enough  to  be  incapable 
of  printing  a  lie.  I  say  to  have  imagination  enough,  because 
it  is  only  the  dullard,  and  the  man  without  a  thought  beyond 
the  immediate  cravings  of  his  belly,  who  thinks  that  he  can 
make  any  money  that  will  stay  in  the  cash-box  by  humbugging 
the  public,  or  trying  to.  Neither  more  nor  less  than  in  com- 
mercial salesmanship  by  the  printed  word,  the  seller  of  shares 
in  a  new  or  an  old  company  must  have  brains  enough  to  be 
honest.  It  needs  brains  to  be  honest.  But  there  are  men 
that  have  them.  These  are  the  men  who  must  be  sought 
out,  to  do  the  work  of  finding  Capital  for  the  new  work  of 
the  world. 

Evidently  a  great  deal  of  the  advertising  which  will  be 
used  for  financing  business  will  be  of  the  institutional  cha- 
racter. It  will  not  be  easy  to  write  :  it  will  require  a  high 
degree  of  literary  talent  and  conscientiousness.  One  effect 
of  it,  I  hope,  will  be  to  set  up  a  higher  literary  standard 
in  Advertising  all  round.  The  advertising  business  can  do 
with  it  ! 


APPENDIX  289 


VIII 


One  other  kind  of  Advertising  which  is  strictly  non- 
commercial, since  there  is  no  question  of  selling  anything 
at  all  by  it,  remains  to  be  discussed — namely,  political  Adver- 
tising. But  the  subject  has,  in  the  main,  no  importance  to 
the  business  people  for  whom  this  book  is  meant,  and  if  treated 
with  fulness  would  require  a  considerable  volume.  The 
remarks  offered  will  therefore  be  confined  to  one  aspect  of 
it,  because  this  aspect  illustrates  a  commercial  problem,  for  the 
sake  of  which  alone  political  Advertising  is  discussed  at  all 
on  the  present  occasion. 

Political  Advertising,  in  a  full  treatment,  would  drag  the 
reader  through  some  devious  ways  which  the  late  War,  and 
certain  things  which  preceded  it,  made  odious  with  the  name 
of  '  propaganda.'  As  a  part  of  the  Germanic  intrigue  for 
world-supremacy,  a  complicated  plan  was  put  into  operation 
for  dominating  the  Press  of  the  chief  European  nations  and 
of  South  America.  Roundabout  systems  of  company  and 
sub-company,  principals  and  subsidiaries,  screened  by  neutral 
citizens  as  accomplices  and  tools,  enabled  the  German  Govern- 
ment to  gain  a  strangle-hold  on  numerous  Continental  and 
other  newspapers.  The  British  Empire  and  the  United 
States  escaped,  as  far  as  is  known,  this  insidious  menace  :  and 
they  escaped  it  indirectly  through  the  beneficent  influence 
of  Advertising.  A  newspaper  is  powerful  and  independent 
in  proportion  to  its  ability  to  command  revenue  from  Adver- 
tising. A  large  number  of  newspapers — perhaps  a  majority — 
in  the  two  English-speaking  nations  actually  cost  as  much 
to  print  as  the  publishers  receive  from  newsagents,  or  cost 
more.  All  the  expenses  of  editorship,  telegraphic  services, 
reports,  and  management  are  supplied  by  advertising-revenue. 
If  a  newspaper  cannot  live  and  flourish  by  means  of  its 
advertisements  it  must  either  go  out  of  business  or  become, 
paradoxically,  the  prey  of  advertisers.  The  British  newspaper 
Press  is  able  to  treat  advertisers  with  the  disdain  which  it  does, 
in  fact,  rather  unfairly  exhibit,  precisely  because  it  can  obtain 


290  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

from  its  advertisement  columns  all  the  revenue  needed.  The 
Continental  Press  is,  in  a  preponderating  part,  at  the  mercy 
of  advertising  contractors,  because  it  has  to  derive  a  large 
part  of  its  income  from  the  profit  on  sale  of  copies.  All  is 
paradox  ! 

Many  Continental  newspapers  allow  their  advertisement- 
revenue  to  be  '  farmed.'  That  is  to  say,  an  advertising 
agency  contracts  for  the  exclusive  right  to  let  the  space,  either 
paying  an  annual  rent  for  the  whole,  and  making  what  profit 
it  can  ;  or  else  obtaining  the  sole  right  to  let  off  as  much  space 
as  it  can,  on  its  own  terms,  and  pay  a  fixed  rent  for  as  much 
space  as  its  clients  occupy.  The  needy  Press  of  Continental 
Europe  was  further  compelled  to  sell  what  soul  it  possessed 
to  the  farming  agents,  who  exercised  a  kind  of  censorship  : 
they  could  prevent  the  publication  of  anything  which  they 
did  not  like.  Sometimes  their  taste  forbade  anything  which 
might  inconvenience  the  German  military  authorities. 
Direct  ownership  of  newspapers,  believed  to  exercise  political 
influence,  was  also  sought  by  representatives  of  German 
propaganda,  and  has  led  to  trials  and  executions  during 
the  War. 

In  South  America,  the  hidden  hand  in  the  newspaper 
world  has  been  working  for  Germany's  commercial  profit, 
as  well  as,  and  more  than,  for  political  gain  ;  though  during 
the  War  false  news  was  disseminated  there  and  elsewhere. 
The  United  States  had  some  difficulty  in  checking  the  same 
game  at  home,  and  Washington  found  it  necessary  to  establish 
a  Press  bureau.  The  British  Government,  too,  had  a  Ministry 
of  Information  and  a  department  which  tried  to  spread 
propaganda  in  enemy  countries.  Of  this,  perhaps,  the  less 
said  the  better. 

All  belligerent  nations  used  advertisements  to  disseminate 
ideas  believed  to  be  useful  and  to  sustain  moral.  Such  publicity 
would  be  necessarily  included  in  a  general  definition  of  political 
advertising.  The  political  advertising  to  be  discussed  here 
is  much  more  narrowly  limited.  Perhaps  it  is  best  defined 
by  calling  it  election  advertising. 

Ever  since  billposting  came  into  general  use  it  has  been 


APPENDIX  291 

a  great  feature  of  electoral  contests.  I  suppose  that  it  has 
had  importance  for  quite  a  century,  though  modern  billposting 
as  an  organised  and  respectably  trade  only  dates  back  to  1863, 
when  billposters,  led  by  the  late  Mr.  Sheldon,  began  the 
practice  of  paying  for  and  protecting  billposting  stations. 
Prior  to  this,  billsticking  was  a  shady  business,  carried  on  mostly 
at  night.  Men  were  sent  out  with  small,  evilly-printed  bills 
to  be  stuck  up  wherever  an  opportunity  offered,  and  pulled 
down  again  by  indignant  owners  of  property  next  morning. 
Protected  and  rented  stations,  now  rated  for  local  taxation, 
put  billposting  on  the  up-grade.  If  such  stations  have  been 
invaded  to  any  serious  extent  during  the  last  half-century, 
it  has  been  for  political  purposes.  I  remember  nights  when, 
in  the  wildness  of  youth,  I  went  forth  with  other  lads  to  cover 
up  the  election  posters  of  the  opposite  party,  and  tear  down 
the  bills  that  had  been  stuck  over  our  own  by  the  enemy's 
myrmidons,  both  paid  and  unpaid. 

Until  19 10,  election  advertising  in  the  Press  was  almost 
entirely  confined,  when  it  existed  at  all,  to  the  publication 
of  candidates'  official  addresses.  In  1905,  when  advertise- 
ment manager  of  The  Times,  I  succeeded,  to  the  scandal  of 
my  own  political  sentiments,  in  inducing  one  party  to  use 
a  full-page  announcement,  and  tried  unsuccessfully  to  get  the 
other  party  to  redeem  my  conscience  by  replying  to  it  in  the 
same  manner.  My  best  outdoor  representative  journeyed  to 
Birmingham,  waylaid  the  Right  Honourable  Joseph  Chamber- 
lain after  a  public  meeting,  and  tried  to  let  him  a  page  for 
the  Tariff  Reform  League.  Mr.  Chamberlain  received  him 
well,  and  took  him  home  to  supper,  but  did  not  give  him  the 
order.  The  election  turned  out  badly  for  the  party  that  did 
pay  for  space. 

In  19 10,  when  I  had  the  honour  of  conducting  a  full- 
dress  electoral  newspaper-advertising  campaign,  under  the 
brilliant  direction  of  Mr.  Robert  Donald,  I  laid  down  what 
I  believe  to  be  the  basic  principle  of  election-advertising. 
This  was,  that  the  papers  in  which  a  party  should  advertise 
for  electoral  purposes  are  those  opposed  to  itself.  Quite 
ninety  electors  out  of  a  hundred  hate  the   opposite  party  so 


292  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

much  that  they  never  read  any  newspaper  unless  it  is  on 
their  own  side.  The  more  violent  and  scurrilous  it  is,  the 
more  popular.  If  you  want  to  make  converts  and  turn 
votes,  the  only  chance  of  doing  this  by  Press  advertising  is 
to  print  your  arguments  in  the  enemy's  papers,  snatching 
conviction  through  the  justice  of  your  cause  or  the  specious- 
ness  of  your  allegations. 

In  practice,  there  are  the  following  two  difficulties  about 
this — ^the  second  much  more  serious  than  the  first.  The 
first  is  that  campaign-funds  are  limited,  and  as  soon  as  the 
newspapers  of  either  party  find  that  all  their  party's  adver- 
tising is  given  to  those  of  the  opposing  party  (as  it  should  be) 
they  set  up  a  howl,  which  frightens  candidates  out  of  their 
common  sense.  '  Here,'  say  the  exacerbated  editors,  '  have 
we  been  supporting  you  through  thick  and  thin,  printing 
your  rotten  speeches  and  editing  them  for  you  until  they 
read  like  sense,  organising  meetings,  and  raking  up  everything 
we  can  against  your  opponents  ;  and  when  you  have  money 
to  spend  you  give  it  to  the  other  fellow — full  pages  of  it  ! 
It  isn't  fair.' 

Of  course  the  proper  reply  would  be  :  'Go  to  the  oppo- 
sition candidate.  He  is  the  man  who  ought  to  use  your 
space.'  But,  in  the  difficult  stresses  of  an  election,  the  fact 
is  that  the  party  Press  has  to  be  placated,  and  the  fund  divided 
to  publish  arguments  where  they  are  not  really  needed,  and 
to  address  readers  who  are  plus  catholiques  que  le  pape. 

That  is  the  lesser  of  the  two  obstacles  to  newspaper- 
advertising  for  electoral  purposes.  The  other,  which  I  had 
to  face  in  19  lO,  is  much  more  serious.  When  it  came  to 
business,  some  of  the  most  important  papers  on  the  side 
politically  opposed  to  me,  led  by  the  Daily  Mail,  refused  to 
take  my  advertisements  at  all. 

This,  of  course,  raises  the  whole  question  of  editorial 
concern  with  Advertising.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  papers 
which  refused  the  advertisements  were,  in  one  sense,  per- 
fectly right.  Certainly,  I  should  not  wish  to  interfere  with 
an  editor's  discretion,  however  improperly  exercised.  As  an 
advertising-man,  actuated  solely  by  a  desire  to  subserve  the 


APPENDIX  295 

general  efficiency  of  Advertising,  I  would  (on  the  contrary) 
strain  every  nerve  to  maintain  the  editorial  integrity  of  the 
Press.  It  is  only  through  thjs  integrity  that  the  Press  is  the 
supreme  advertising  medium  which  it  is.  No  editor  should 
be  required  by  a  newspaper  proprietor  to  do  or  print  anything 
in  favour  of  advertiser's  goods,  or  to  puff  them  in  any  way 
whatsoever.  It  is  much  better  for  them  that  he  should  not. 
Out  of  this  arises  what  I  believe  to  be  good  law  and  a  principle 
important  in  the  public  interest — namely,  that  the  advertise- 
ment-manager of  a  newspaper,  however  bindingly  he  may 
have  accepted  an  advertiser's  contract,  cannot  be  required  to 
fulfil  it.  The  insertion  or  omission  of  any  announcement 
ought  to  be  within  the  unquestioned  competence  of  the  editor, 
and  of  him  alone.  It  follows,  that  although  a  newspaper 
may  have  accepted  what  is  called  a  series-order,  and  inserted 
some  of  the  advertisements  in  the  series,  it  cannot  be  required 
to  complete  the  insertion  of  the  series.^ 

But  not  all  lawful  things  are  expedient.  Whether  it  is, 
in  fact,  expedient  for  newspapers  to  refuse  political  advertise- 
ments for  political  reasons  is  a  question  unaffected  by  anything 
said  above.  The  newspaper  which  inserted  an  adverse  political 
announcement  would  have  the  right,  and  perhaps  be  under  the 
obligation,  to  shoot  it  to  pieces  in  its  editorial  columns.  The 
advertiser  would  have  no  grounds  for  objecting  to  this,  however 
virulent  the  attack  which  he  had  brought  upon  himself.  But 
if  we  believe  in  democratic  principles  at  all,  we  ought  to 
believe  that  the  electorate  has  a  right  to  hear  every  argument 
from  every  side.  We  ought  not  to  deprive  an  opponent  of 
any  opportunity  to  state  his  case.  We  believe  his  case  to  be 
untenable.  We  believe  ourselves  (on  whatever  side  we  may 
be)  able  to  answer  it.  We  ought  not,  therefore,  to  suppress 
it.  If  our  own  case  is  sound,  the  more  fully  the  enemy 
exposes  his  arguments  the  better  our  opportunity  to  turn  them 

^  Two  limitations  must  of  course  be  placed  on  this.  The  first  is 
that  the  discretion  exercised  by  the  newspaper  must  be  exercised 
reasonably,  like  every  other  legal  discretion.  The  other  is,  that  if 
the  rate  charged  for  a  series  of  advertisements  is  reduced  in  consider- 
ation of  the  length  of  the  series,  and  if  the  series  is  cut  short  by  the 
newspaper,  the  latter  cannot,  of  course,  expect  to  charge  the  higher 
rate  applicable  to  a  shorter  series. 


294  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

against  him.  And  the  Press,  being  a  public  utility,  ought 
no  more  to  close  its  columns  against  an  electoral  announce- 
ment opposed  to  its  editorial  policy,  than  a  billposter  ought 
to  refuse  to  put  up  bills  for  the  party  for  which  he  does  not 
intend  to  vote. 

This  obligation  is,  as  I  have  tried  to  indicate,  purely 
moral.  Legally  and  commercially,  newspapers  have  a  right 
to  please  themselves.  The  only  opinion  which  I  express 
is  that  they  ought  to  act  impartially  in  letting  their  space, 
favouring  no  party.  The  Times  ought  to  accept  the  adver- 
tisements of  the  Social  Democratic  party  and  the  Daily 
Herald  those  of  the  Tories. 

The  subject  would  not  have  been  discussed  at  all  in  this 
place  if  it  did  not  illustrate  a  point  in  commercial  Advertising. 
It  is  a  point  of  some  importance. 

Some  commercial  advertisers  are  always  asking  the  adver- 
tisement-managers of  newspapers  to  procure  for  them  what 
are  called  '  notices,'  and  do,  in  fact,  very  often  succeed  in 
having  paragraphs  inserted,  without  payment,  about  themselves 
or  their  wares.  At  The  Times  office,  I  was  always  being 
asked  to  find  some  way  of  infringing  the  editorial  chastity. 
There  is  an  organised  system  of  insinuating  into  the  Press 
articles  believed  to  serve  the  purpose  of  Advertising,  without 
being  printed  and  paid  for  as  advertisements,  and  the  calling 
of  a  *  Press-agent '  is  recognised  by  some  directories.  What 
I  proceed  to  discuss  here  is  the  morality  and  the  commercial 
efficiency  of  the  free-notice  system. 

And  first  its  morality,  which  can  be  quickly  disposed  of, 
after  a  famous  literary  precedent.  There  is  no  morality  in 
the  free-notice.  In  so  far  as  a  newspaper  enjoys  the  confidence 
and  can  influence  the  acts  of  its  readers,  the  newspaper  is  the 
repository  of  a  trust  which  it  should  respect.  It  should  print 
nothing  about  any  commodity,  merchandise,  or  utility  from 
any  other  motive  than  the  knowledge  or  belief  that  the  public 
needs,  or  its  readers  desire,  information  on  the  subject.  But, 
on  the  other  hand — ^and  it  is  here  that  newspapers  of  the  better 
class  are  transgressors — ^a  newspaper  should  not  suppress  or 
mutilate  any  piece  of  news,  because  to  publish  it  in  full  would 


APPENDIX  295 

benefit  some  advertiser,  whether  that  advertiser  uses  its  own 
columns  or  not.  In  fact,  a  newspaper  should  publish  news 
and  think  of  nothing  else — I  use  the  term  *  newspaper '  to 
mean  any  kind  of  periodical,  ^knd  *  news '  to  mean  any  kind 
of  reading-matter.  If  there  is  anything  of  general  interest 
to  be  said  about  a  commercial  product,  editors  and  their  sub- 
ordinates are  silly  to  deprive  the  item  of  the  definiteness  which 
everywhere  else  is  the  soul  of  journalistic  reporting,  merely 
because  they  are  reluctant  to  do  good  to  someone  who  never 
did  them  any  harm,  and  very  possibly  helped  to  pay  their 
wages.  No  doubt  a  certain  amount  of  moral  cowardice 
enters  into  their  subjectivity.  They  fear  to  be  suspected 
of  puffery  in  connection  with  a  commercial  object,  though 
without  shame  and  without  concealment  they  engage  in 
log-rolling  of  a  kind  that  would  make  even  a  Press-agent 
blush,  supposing  his  hardened  capillaries  to  be  capable  of  it. 

Advertisers  who  want  to  get  their  names  into  print  are 
presented  with  the  following  hints.  Do  not  ask  your  adver- 
tising agent  to  *  work  the  oracle.'  He  can  rarely  do  it,  except 
with  papers  of  influence  and  circulation  so  paltry  that  they 
are  of  no  value  to  you  ;  and  they  will  probably  cajole  from 
you  some  kind  of  compensation  for  their  own  misconduct 
that  will  cause  you  to  spend  more  money  on  their  space  than 
it  is  worth.  But  if  you  must  do  this  kind  of  thing,  for  good- 
ness' sake  write  your  puff  yourself,  or  have  it  written  by 
someone  who  knows  the  trick,  because  if  you  allow  the  paper 
to  perpetrate  its  own  shame,  it  will  do  the  job  too  stupidly 
to  be  of  any  value  to  you. 

There  is  a  much  better  way  to  obtain  free  notice,  however, 
and  this  is  to  do  something  which  really  is,  or  looks  like,  news, 
and  contrive  that  the  reporters  receive  a  hint  from  someone 
of  their  own  profession.  Some  years  ago,  an  advertiser  of 
my  acquaintance  hit  upon  a  clever  dodge  to  obtain  free 
publicity.  An  explorer  had  started  for  remote  regions,  and 
the  advertiser  had  sold  him  some  goods.  These  he  kept 
back  until  the  expedition  had  publicly  started.  Of  course 
it  was  going  to  be  quite  easy  to  overtake  the  ship  by  sending 
the  goods  overland  to  a  continental  coaling-station  ;  but   the 


296  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 

wily  merchant  chose  to  forget  this  for  the  moment .  He 
equipped  a  man  in  full  exploratory  costume  and  had  the  case 
of  goods  very  conspicuously  labelled  with  the  real  explorer's 
eminent  name.  He  then  got  a  friend  to  send  a  suitable 
telephone-message  to  the  Press  Club  and  one  or  two  other 
places,  with  the  result  that  a  number  of  reporters  (some  of 
them  with  cameras)  arrived  at  the  advertiser's  place  just  in 
time  to  see  the  goods  start,  the  man  in  charge  confiding  to 
them  his  intention  of  following  the  expedition  to  its  goal, 
all  risks  disregarded,  if  he  could  not  overtake  it  on  the  way. 
The  consequence  was  that  by  the  time  the  packing-case  had 
been  dispatched  grande  vitesse  (it  was  before  the  War)  and  the 
masquerader  had  put  on  his  ordinary  clothes,  all  the  morning 
papers,  or  most  of  them,  had  a  capital  '  story '  in  type,  and 
many  of  them  were  making  blocks  from  photographs  which 
displayed  the  name  of  the  product  in  large  letters.  If  you 
must  go  in  for  the  free-notice  idea,  do  it  thoroughly  ! 

At  The  Times,  as  I  have  said,  I  was  always  being  pestered 
to  obtain  free-notices  for  advertisers,  and  always  refused  to 
attempt  what  I  knew  that  I  could  not  accomplish.  But  I 
did  occasionally  show  an  advertiser  how  to  make  himself  a 
subject  of  public  interest,  and  sometimes  helped  him  by  writing 
the  report  myself  It  is  to  the  credit  of  The  Times  to  mention, 
that  when  I  did  get  one  of  these  things  past  the  news-editor, 
the  editorial  department  always  solemnly  sent  me  a  cheque 
for  my  copy  at  the  regular  news  rate,  thus  asseverating  the 
inviolable  virginity  of  its  editorial  columns. 

But  I  very  much  doubt  whether  all  the  fuss  made,  and 
trouble  taken  in  order  to  obtain  free-notices,  pays  for  itself, 
even  when  a  paragraph  does  appear  in  a  paper  worth  troubling 
about.  The  fact  is,  that  without  the  psychological  impact 
of  a  real  advertisement,  suggesting,  by  association  of  ideas, 
the  notion  of  buying,  no  amount  of  print  and  paper  seems 
to  sell  the  goods.  Indeed,  no  matter  what  it  is  that  you 
want  people  to  do,  there  is  evidence  that  you  can  more  easily 
make  them  do  it  by  means  of  the  advertisement-columns 
than  by  means  of  the  reading-matter  columns,  so  called.  An 
example  of  this  evidence  is  furnished  by  the  electoral  adver- 


APPENDIX  297 

tising,  already  too  often  mentioned  for  my  own  private  taste. 
In  one  important  tract  of  country,  the  opposed  party  had 
been  able,  for  certain  geographical  reasons,  to  launch  a  specially 
heavy  attack  at  a  late  stage  in  the  campaign.  This  greatly 
disturbed  the  leaders  of  my  side,  and  I  w^as  summoned  at 
midnight  to  deal  with  it.  The  thing  was  handled  promptly. 
I  roused  the  late  W.  T.  Stead  from  a  sick-bed  at  two  o'clock 
in  the  morning — Mr.  Donald  having  perceived  with  his 
unerring  Jiair  that  Mr.  Stead  was  the  one  man  in  England 
who  could  produce  what  was  wanted — to  write  the  adver- 
tisement. 

Now,  all  the  papers  of  the  opposed  party  were,  of  course, 
backing  the  scare  to  which  this  advertisement  was  the  answer, 
with  all  the  weight  of  their  editorial  columns  :  but  most  of 
them  inserted  our  advertisement  all  the  same.  Thus  there 
was  constituted  a  perifect  '  test  case.'  The  advertisement 
asked  the  readers  to  do  one  thing.  The  '  free-notice '  asked 
them  to  do  the  reverse  Well,  the  result  was  this.  In  the 
tract  of  country  covered  by  the  advertising,  we  lost  only  one 
seat  :  and  that  seat  was  lost  in  a  constituency  where  the 
candidate  opposed  to  us  owned  the  local  paper  and  refused  to 
insert  the  advertisement  ! 

I  do  not  believe  that  free-notices  sell  goods.  It  takes 
straight  advertising  to  do  that.  I  very  much  question  whether 
the  free-notice  dodge  does  as  much  good  as  harm. 


INDEX 


Advertisement  as  by-product, 
45 ;  old  meaning  of,  48  ;  signed, 
38,  39;  classified,  188;  mis- 
representation in,  198 ;  quali- 
fications of  a  writer,  142, 

Advertisement  Consultants,  In- 
corporated Society  of,  44. 

Advertisers'  Protection  Society, 
52,  198. 

Advertising,  past,  present,  and 
future  (Intro,),  1-44 ;  defini- 
tion, I,  49,  181  ;  functions 
and  policy  (Lecture  II),  76- 
117,  90,  125 ;  increases  con- 
sumption, II  ;  benefit  to  the 
community,  15  ;  when  essen- 
tial, 21  ;  professional  services, 
40  ;  not  a  gamble,  43  ;  official 
recognition,  44  ;  economic  justi- 
fication of  (Lecture  I),  45-77  ; 
derivatives,  47  ;  evil  of  secrecy, 
50 ;  legal  status,  53 ;  argu- 
ments against,  54-57  ;  of  staple 
goods,  55  ;  a  new  product, 
70  ;  protective  value,  81  ;  cost 
of,  106,  112,  191  ;  leakages 
in,  108  ;  retail,  and  trade- 
marks, 146-179;  retail  prin- 
ciples of,  171  ;  main  modes 
of,  180-209  ;  as  a  distributor 
of  news,  188  ;  mail-order,  208, 
210-234  ;  schemes,  prices,  &c., 
228  ;  as  a  career  (Lecture  VI), 
235-255  ;  contracts,  253  ;  co- 
operative, 257,  280-284  ;  non- 
commercial, 257-258  ;  institu- 
tional, 258,  284-288 ;  war, 
259-262  ;  municipal,  262-265  ; 
of  holiday  resorts,  263  ;  Safety- 
first,  265-274  ;  travel,  269  ; 
political,  289-297. 

Advertising  Recruit  Committee, 
124. 

Aerated  Bread  Company,  67. 

Alcohol  advertisements,  39,  136, 
139,  200. 

Aldwych  Club,  25. 

Allan's  shop,  174. 

Almanacs,  181. 

Amateur  Photographer,  187. 


American  methods,  50. 

Anderson's  shop,  174. 

Announcements,  4. 

Arrows,  use  of,  131. 

Art.  5(?e  Illustrations  antf Pictures. 

Art  paper,  36. 

Association  of  ideas,  5,  7,  129. 

Attention,  33,  125,  172. 

Australia,    national    advertising, 

286. 
Auto-Strop  razors,  83,  98. 


Bacon,  quoted,  82. 

Badminton,  75. 

Bananas,  150. 

Barratt,  Mr.,  9,  36. 

Beauty  treatment,  229. 

Bed,  Graham's  Celestial,  2. 

Beeching,  C.  L.  T.,  64. 

Beef -extracts,  73,  170,  200.     See 

also  Bovril. 
Bell,  Moberley,  218. 
Bennett's  watches,  6. 
Benson,  S.  H.,  104,  169. 
Benzole,  advertising  of,  280. 
Benzole  Association,  National,283, 
Bermaline  bread,  13. 
'  Bibby's  Annual,'  17. 
Bible,  the,  47. 
Bicycles,  49. 
'  Billposting '  Manual,   107,    199. 

See  also  Posters. 
Biscuits,  148. 

Bissell  carpet-sweepers,  14,  55. 
Black,  Adam  &  Charles,  217. 
Blanking,  31-32. 
Blocks,  keeping  account  of,  254. 

See      also      Illustrations      and 

Pictures. 
Blondeau  &  Cie,  8  et  seq. 
Board  of  Trade,  The,  258. 
Board  of  Trade  Journal,  25. 
Bookmakers'  advertisements,  39. 
Books,  advertising  of,  201. 
Boots,  58. 
Bourn ville,  68. 
Bovril,  67,  85  •   change  of  policy, 

86 ;   trade-mark,  149. 


299 


300 


COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 


*  Bowranite,'  212. 

Brand.     See  Trade-Mark. 

Bread,  13-14.  150,  184. 

Breakfast-food,  139. 

British  Commercial  Gas  Associa- 
tion, 280,  283. 

British  Dominion  Insurance  Com- 
pany, 84. 

Broadwood  pianos,  49. 

Brooke  Bond's  tea,  27,  49,  178. 

Brown  &  Poison  mascot,  159, 
163,  165. 

Browne,  Tom,  artist,  164. 

Building  materials,  72. 

Burroughs  Welcome  &  Co.,  81, 
156,  178.     See  also  '  Tabloid.' 

Buyer,  140,  146  ;  not  victimised, 
26. 

By-product,  advertising  as  a,  45. 


Cadbury's  cocoa,  58,  68,  79, 128. 

Caffeine,  75. 

Calico,  152. 

California  Fruit-Growers'  Ex- 
change, 72. 

Cameras,  86. 

Canada,  72  ;  national  advertising, 
286. 

Canvassing,  fallacious,  191. 

Carhsle,  Thomas,  quoted,  21. 

Carpet-sweepers,  14,  55. 

Carter's  Little  Liver  Pills,  159. 

Caslon  type,  19,  144. 

Catalogues,  distribution  of,  204. 

Catch-phrase,  52. 

Cave-dweller,  i. 

Celestial  Bed,  2. 

Cement,  153. 

Censorship  of  posters,  30. 

Census  forms  and  advertising,  9. 

Charts,  costs,  108,  iii. 

Cheapness,  demand  for,  81. 

Chesebrough  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany, 155. 

Cheltenham  Bold,  type,  144. 

Chemist  and  Druggist,  177-78, 187. 

Christian  Commonwealth,  187. 

Church  Times,  187. 

Cigar  advertising,  27,  185. 

Cigarettes,  11,  33,  39,  67,  185; 
consumption  in  U.S.A.,  69 ; 
smoking  a  habit,  242. 

Circulars,  house-to-house  delivery, 
201  ;  uses  of,  181. 

Circulation  of  Daily  Mail,  184; 


of  The  r»mes,  99;  of  newspapers, 
52,  190,  198  ;  paying  for  waste, 

174- 

Citizen,  The,  174 

Clothing,  185. 

Coal-economy  advertising,  124. 

Cocoa  advertised  by  posters,  200  ; 
advertising,  5,  11,  58,  67-68, 
73,  85  ;  imports  influenced  by 
advertising,  68. 

Coffee,  advertising  of,  75,  80,  147. 

Collars,  49,  183. 

Colleen  soap,  170. 

Colman's  mustard,  96-97, 101,104. 

Colour  in  advertising,  35,  36 ; 
visibility  of,  107  ;  in  illustra- 
tion, 203  ;  see  also  Illustrations 
and  Pictures. 

'  Comfort '  soap, 72. 

Comic  Cuts,  185. 

Competition,  58,  65,  70,  81  ; 
borne  by  manufacturers,  80 ; 
increases  cost,  102. 

Competitions,  photography,  104. 

Concerts,  advertising  of,  186. 

Condiments,  58. 

Confectionery,  72. 

Contemporary  Review,  187. 

Contracts,  53,  253. 

Convenience,  selling  points  in,  93. 

Conviction,  125,  129. 

Co-operative  advertising,  257,  280, 
284. 

Copy-writing,  1 18-145. 

Corn-flour,  advertising  of,  165. 

Corsets,  201. 

Cosmetics,  201. 

Costs,  58-60 ;  comparison  of, 
no,  199  ;  of  advertising.  71-2  ; 
106,  110-114,  184,  191  ;  9^ 
advertising  in  the  Daily  Mail, 
199;  of  selling,  110-114. 

Country  Life,  194. 

Covers,  36. 

Credit,  65. 

Criers  in  Middle  Ages,  51. 

Crosby's  Cough  Elixir,  6. 

Cucumbers,  branding  of,  271. 

Currants,  150. 

Curve  of  pursuit,  115. 

Cut-line,  127. 


Daily  Chronicle,  quoted,  61,  257. 
Daily  Graphic,  16. 
Daily  Herald,  294. 


INDEX 


301 


Daily  Mail,  the  cost  of  adver- 
tising in,  14,  98,  183,  195,  199. 

Daily  News,  185. 

Daily  Telegraph,  186. 

Dante,  style  used  by,  140.  ' 

Day  &  Martin's  blacking,  152 

Department  stores,  174. 

Derrick,  Paul  E.,  164. 

Derry  &  Toms,  127. 

Dill  Scott,  Professor,  107. 

'  Dirty  Boy  '  advertising,  10. 

Disinfectants,  132. 

Display,  122,  129. 

Distribution,  trade  organisation 
of,  169. 

District  Railway,  127. 

Donald,  Robert,  257,  291,  297. 

Double-crown  posters,  31. 

Drapers'  Record,  148,  177,  187. 

Drugs,  74,  178.  See  also  '  Tab- 
loid.' 

Duffy-Powers  Co.,  50. 

Dunlop,  Mr.,  as  a  mascot,  163. 

Duplicating  machines,  204. 

Dyeing  and  cleaning,  128. 


Eagle  Insurance  Company,  277. 
Eaton,      Timothy,      department 

store,  173. 
Economic  aspects  of   advertising, 

12,  45-77,  217. 
Economics,  School  of,  43. 
Economist,  The,  187. 
Economy,  coal,  advertising,  124  ; 

selling  points  in,  93  ;    in  trade 

organisation,  71. 
Edinburgh  Dispatch,  174. 
Edinburgh  Evening  News,  174. 
Edinburgh  Review,  187. 
Efficiency,  selling  points  in,  93. 
Election  advertising,  290. 
Emanuel,  Philip,  26. 
Emulsion,  cod  liver  oil,  159. 
'  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  '   sent 

on    approval,     27,     212,     217, 

223,  231,  277. 
Engineer,  185. 
Engineering,  185. 
Eno's  Fruit  Salt,  17. 
Epps's  cocoa,  advertising,  5. 
Equitable    Life    Assurance    Com- 
pany, 84,  274. 
Evans,  D.  H.  &  Co.,  86. 
Evening  News  (Glasgow),  174. 
Evening  News,  25. 


Examinations,  advertising,  44. 

Exaggeration,  21,  51,  54,  133  ; 
in  advertising,  211  ;  sanctioned 
by  the  Courts,  23  ;  uselessness 
of,  139. 

Exhibition,  Ideal  Home,  91. 

Eye-catchers,  33. 


Factory,  cleanliness  in,  83. 

Facts,  how  to  arrange,  135. 

Fans,  181. 

Farrow's  mustard,  96,  loi. 

Fats,  75. 

Fels-Naptha,  27,  83,  139. 

Figures,  plain,  21. 

Films,  photographic,  213. 

Financial  advertising,  258. 

Follow-up,  207 ;  inventing 
schemes,  226. 

Food-production,  57. 

Food-stuffs,  advertised,  58,  163  ; 
cost  of  advertising,  71  ;  adver- 
tised by  posters,  200.       " 

'  Force,'  breakfast  food,  164. 

Form  letters,  uses  of,  181,  233; 
important  points,  205-6  ; 
length  of,  208. 

Fountain-pens,  72. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  36. 

Frazer's  sulphur  tablets,  159, 
162. 

Freear,  Mr.,  43. 

French  coin  advertising,  10. 

Fruit-farming,  270. 

Fruit-Growers'  Exchange,  Cali- 
fornia, 72. 

Fry's  cocoa,  6,  69. 

Functions  and  policy  of  adver- 
tising (Lecture  II),  76-117, 
125  ;  of  sales-management,  168. 

Furniture,  72,  201. 


Gammeter  Multigraphs,  204. 
General  Omnibus  Company,  266. 
Gibraltar  as  a  symbol,  132. 
Gillette  razors,  56,  83,  214. 
Glasgow  Herald,  25,  174. 
Glaxo,  123. 
Gong  soups,  83. 
Goodwill,  value  of,  149. 
Government    influenced    by    ad- 
vertising, 87. 


302 


COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 


'  Graham's  Celestial  Bed,'  2,  12. 
Gramophone,  86,  131. 
Grammar,  importance  of,  18. 
Graphic,  187,  194. 
Graphs,  108. 

Great  Eastern  Railway,  270. 
Greek  advertising,  51. 
Grocers,  49,  64, 
Grocery  The,  178  ;    Diary,  64. 
Guarantee,  28,  79;    of  IngersoU 
watch,  18. 


Instalment  selling,  27,  85,  227. 
Institute  of  Certificated  Grocers, 

64. 
Institutional  advertising,  258,  284, 

288. 
Insurance  Companies,  84,  132. 
Irish  linen  industry,  280,  283. 
Ironmongery  178. 
'  Ivelcon,'  170. 
Ivory  soap,  138. 


Hall-mark,  the,  of  commerce, 
146-179. 

Hamilton,  Lady,  and  the  '  Temple 
of  Health,'  2. 

Haig  &  Haig's  whisky,  83. 

Hair-brushes,  75. 

Handkerchief  scheme,  97. 

Hardware,  203. 

Harrod's,  138. 

Hart.  John,  advertising-manager 
of  London  Opinion,  23,  198,  215, 

Hassall,  John,  R,I.,  15,  201. 

Hats,  138. 

Haxton,  H.  R.,  277. 

Hay,  Col.  John,  206. 

Headline,  129. 

Health,  Temple  of,  2. 

Heinz,  128. 

Hill,  Walter,  25. 

'  History  of  Advertising  '  (Samp- 
son), 2. 

Holiday  resorts,  263. 

Hooper,  H.  E.,  27,  100,  217,  223. 

Horrockses'  calico,  152. 

Hosiery,  201. 

Hovis  bread,  13. 

Humour  in  poster-advertising, 
201. 

Hypnosis,  6. 


Ideal  Home  Exhibition,  91. 

Dlustrations,  4,  33,  37>  122 ; 
power  of,  126  ;  uses  of,  131-32, 
172  ;  relevant  and  otherwise,33. 
See  also  Colour  and  Pictures. 

Incorporated  Society  of  Advertise- 
ment Consultants,  44. 

Infant-food,  123. 

Information,  11. 

IngersoU  watches,  18. 

Insets,  36, 


'  Jack  Frost,'  88. 

Jenner's  shop,  174. 

Jewellery,  186,  201. 

'  Johnnie    Walker,'    used    as    a 

mascot,  163-64. 
Johnson,    Dr.     Samuel,     quoted, 

29 ;  120,  140. 
Judgment,  7. 
Junket-powder,  74, 


Keying  advertisements,  225. 

'  King's  English,  The,'  as  a  text- 
book, 135. 

Kitchin,  F.  Harcourt,  25. 

Knox  Gelatine  Company,  169. 

Kodak  service,  27,  103-4,  154 ; 
the  slogan  used  by,  141  ;  not  a 
dictionary  word,  156  ;  mascot, 
163. 

Kutnow's  Carlsbad  Powder,  141. 


Labour-saving  appliances,  15. 
Lacrosse,  75. 
Lancet,  187. 

Land  and  Water,  185,  194. 
Languages,  advantages  of  a  know- 
ledge of,  134. 
Laundry-soaps,  selling  of,  73. 
Law  and  advertising,  53,  151. 
Layout,  138,  144. 
Leakages  in  advertising,  108. 
Le    Bas,    Sir    Hedley,    44,    124, 

259- 
Lemons,  advertising  of,  72. 
Leverhulme,  Lord,  10,  164. 
Lewis's  store,  174. 
Liberal  Party,  257. 
Linen,   Irish  industry,  258,   280, 

283. 
Lipton,  66. 


INDEX 


503 


Lithograph,  204. 

Liverpool  Courier,  174. 

Liverpool  Echo,  174. 

London  and  North-Westem  Rail-^ 
way,  269. 

London   General   Omnibus  Com- 
pany, 258. 

London  Opinion,  23,  52,  187,  198, 
215. 

London   United   Tramway  Com- 
pany, 266. 

Lotteries,  advertising  of,  2. 


Macaulay,  Lord,  134,  217. 
Magazines,  popular,  34,  196. 
Mail-order    advertising,   34,    174, 

208,    210-234  •     derivation    of 

the    term,    210-      lists,    220; 

tobacco,  27,  232. 
Margarine,  selling  of,  73-75- 
Martin's  cigars,  27,  210,  232. 
Mascots,  163,  165. 
Matrimonial  advertisements,  2. 
Maule's  shop,  174. 
Meat,  75,  83. 
Medicines,    advertising    of,    201. 

See  also  '  Tabloid.' 
Media,  177,  183-185,  194. 
Men's  Wear,  178. 
Mica,  88. 
Middlemen,  63. 
Millais,  Sir  John,  9. 
Milton,  140. 
Modes  of  advertisement,  the  three 

main,  180-209. 
Money-back  system,  27. 
Money-lenders'      advertisements, 

39. 
Montgomery  Moore  &  Co.,  234. 
Morning  Post,  188. 
Motor-cars,    131,    201  ;     cost    of 

advertising,  72. 
Mudie's  Library,  loi. 
Multiple  shops,  85. 
Municipal    advertisements,    262- 

265. 
Music,  advertising  of,  186. 
Mustard,  96. 


Name  for  advertised  product, 
90  ;  evolution  of,  33  ■  formerly 
used  alone,  16 ;  advertising 
and  brevity,  18. 


Nash's  Magazine  advertisements, 

34. 

Nation,  The,  187. 

National  Benzole  Association,  283. 

National  trade-mark,  284. 

National  War  Bonds,  46. 

Newspaper  advertising,  52,  258  { 
daily,  174,  185;  evening,  189, 
193  ;  morning,  189,  193  ;  Sun- 
day, 194  ;  weekly,  194. 

Night-lights,  advertising  of,  102. 

Northcliffe,  Lord,  150. 

North-Western  University,  107. 

Notices,  free,  294,  296. 

Novelties,  177,  181. 


Oatmeal,  58. 

Office   furniture,    cost   of   adver- 
tising, 72. 
Oil,  cod  liver,  159. 
Oil  Trades  Journal,  178. 
Old  Dutch  Cleanser,  74. 
Omnibuses,  advertising  in,  181. 
Optical  goods,  cost  of  advertising, 

71- 
Oranges,  72. 

Originality,  importance  of,  144. 
Output,  4,  60. 
Overhead  expenses,  64.     See  also 

Costs. 
'  Oxo  '  advertising,  124. 


Packages,  distinctiveness  of,  153 

Paints,  cost  of  advertising  of,  72. 

Paisley  flour,  165. 

Pamphlets,  distribution  of,  200, 
204. 

Pancreatin,  74. 

'  Paradise  Lost,'  134. 

Parasols,  89. 

Partridge,  Bernard,  37. 

Passing  Show,  26. 

Patriotism  in  advertising,  261, 

Pausanias,  51. 

Pearks's,  66. 

Pears,  5-8,  36,  121  ;  advertising, 
124  ;  slogan  used,  141  ;  trade- 
mark, 159. 

Pegram,  Fred,  37, 

'  Pendragon,'  2. 

P.  &.  O.  Line,  269. 

Pepsin,  74. 

Persuasion,  65,  120. 


304 


COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 


Petrol,  280. 

Photography,     advertising,     104, 

213. 
Piano  advertising,  26,  186,  201. 
Pianolas,  56,  154,  156. 
Pianos,  how  marketed,  49,  56,  86. 
Pictures  as  a  means  of  illustra- 
tion,  33,  126,  128,  131  ;   for  a 
trade-mark,  152. 
'  Pike  County  Ballads,'  206. 
Pills,  Carter's,  162. 
Pitman,  Sir  Isaac,  &  Sons,  107. 
Policy   and   functions  of    adver- 
tising (Lecture  II),  76-117. 
Policy  behind  the  advertisement, 
119;     in    selling    goods,    165; 
in  advertising,  236. 
Polish,  plate,  137. 
Political  advertising,  289-297. 
Pompeii,  advertisements  at,  51. 
Porridge,  139. 
Postage,  203. 

Postal  Life  Company,  279. 
Postscript,  value  of,  207 
Posters  in  advertising,   29,  181 ; 
John  Hassall  as  a  designer,  15  ; 
censorship,  30  ;  unit  of  size,  31  ; 
importance  of,  183,  198  ;    cost 
of  exhibiting,  199  ;    handbook, 
199 ;    suitability    of,    for    ad- 
vertising, 200-201  ;    humorous, 
201  ;  elections,  291. 
Potatoes,  advertised,  16-17. 
Powers,  John  E.,  19,  21,  140. 
Premiums,  wastefulness  of,  73. 
Press,    the,    in    relation    to    ad- 
vertising, 22-23. 
Prices,    21,    61  ;     artificial   main- 
tenance, 65  ;    fixing,  165  ;    re- 
duction of,  127. 
Printers'  Ink,  52,  72,  282. 
Printers'  Ink  Statute,  52. 
Printing  processes,  35-37  ;   know- 
ledge of  indispensable,  42. 
Professional  services,  advertising 

of,  40. 
Profits,  retailer's,  81. 
Protection  from  advertising,  82, 
Psychological  Laboratory,   107. 
Psychology    in    advertising,    17; 
practical,    of   advertising     and 
copy-writing      (Lecture      III). 
118-145. 
Public  Advertiser,  quoted,  48. 
Publicity,  definition  of,  124,  182- 

183. 
Punch,  definition  of,  132. 


Punch,  as  an  advertising  medium, 

^  34 ;  187,  196,  197. 

Pyjamas,  201. 


Quaker  oats,  58,  164. 
Quarterly  Review,  183. 
Queen,  The,  187. 


Rackets,  advertising  of,  75. 

Radiac  collars,  49. 

Railway     advertising,     26,     181, 

269. 
Raleigh  bicycles,  49. 
Razors,    advertising    of,    56,    83, 

147.  214. 
'  Reason    Why '    copy,     10,    33 

124. 
Reckitt's  blue,  6. 
Recruiting    advertisements,    124, 

261. 
Referee,  2. 

Registration  of  trade-marks,  80. 
Reliable  Addressing  Agency,  221. 
Rennet,  74. 
Repetition,  120,  122. 
Retail     advertising     and     trade- 
marks (Lecture  IV),   146-179; 
prices,    61  ;     profits,    63,    81  ; 
turnover,  65. 
Richards,  John  Morgan,  70. 
Richmond  Gem  cigarettes,  70. 
Riddles  used  in  advertising,  9. 
Ridgway's  coffee,  80. 
Romer,  John  Irving,  52. 
Roneotype,  204. 
Rose.  Will  R.,  213. 
Rowan's,  174. 
Rowell,  George  P.,  51. 
Rowntree's  cocoa,  11,  69,  86. 


'  Safety-first  ' 

258,  265-274. 
Safety-razors,  55. 
Sainsbury's,  66, 
Sales,    ratio   of   advertising 

to,  110-112. 
Sales-management,    function    of 

168. 
Salesmen,  retail,  94. 
Samples,  uses  of,  170,  iSk. 


advertisements. 


cost 


INDEX 


305 


Sampson,  Henry,  1-2. 
Sapolio,  33. 

Saturday  Evening  Post,  36. 
Saward,  Baker  &  Co.,  169. 
School  of  Economics  and  Political 

Science,  43. 
Scotsman,  174. 
Scott's  Emulsion,  159. 
Sears,  Roebuck  &  Co.,  234. 
Secrecy  in  textile  trade,  148. 
Seely,  General,  259. 
Selfridge,    H.    G.,    26,     66,    85; 

bargains,  86  ;  department  store, 

173  ;    literary  announcements, 

284. 
'  Self-serving  '  method,  50. 
Selling  methods,  27,  138. 
'Sentinel'  steam  waggon,  271. 
Service,  20,  26-27,  34'  ^5'  266. 
Sewing-machines,  62,  131. 
Shakespeare,  quoted,  47,  51,  134. 
Shaw,  George  Bernard,  220. 
Sheldon,  Cyril,  107,  199. 
Shoe  and  Leather  Record,  178. 
Show-cards  in  advertising,  181. 
Signed  advertisements,  285. 
Signs,  outdoor,  181. 
Silk,  58. 

Sincerity,  19-20. 
Sketch,  The,  187. 
Slogan,  32,  140. 
Smith's  Library,  loi. 
Soap     advertising,     5-10,     121  ; 

'  Comfort,'  72-73  ;  Fels-naptha, 

139-141. 
Somerville,  Roy,  196. 
Soups,  advertising,  83. 
Spectator,  The,  48,  186-187. 
Spoons,  advertising,  127. 
Standard  bread,  14,  150. 
Standard,  The,  89. 
Standardisation,  57,  79. 
Star,  The  (Toronto),  173. 
Starch,  points  in  buying,  147. 
Statistics,    advertising,    112-114, 

241,  282. 
Statute,  Printers*  Ink,  52. 
Stead,  W.  T.,  297. 
Steamship,  advertising,  269. 
Steele,  quoted,  49. 
Stevenson,    R.    L.,    on    indecent 

advertisements,  17. 
Stewart,  Colville,  271. 
'  Stickphast '  advertised,  18. 
Stoves,  advertising  of,  203. 
Strand  Magazine,  34,  187. 
Substitution,  its  evil  effects,  159. 


Sugar,  points  in  buying,  147. 

Suggestion,  6,  128. 

Sulphate    of    Ammonia    Associa- 
tion, 283. 
-*Sun    Life   Company   of   Canada, 
277. 

Sunlight  soap,  79. 

'  Sunny  Jim  '  used  as  a  mascot, 
163. 

Super-calendered  paper,  36. 

Sutton,  Sir  G.  A.,  47,  286. 

Swann,  Hartland,  L.  H.,  258. 

Symington's    soups,     advertising 
of,  83. 


Tablets,  display,  131. 

'  Tabloid,'  80,  90,  154,  156. 

Tea  advertising,  Brooke  Bond's, 
27,  49,  178  ;  points  in  buying, 
147 ;  method  of  advertising, 
150. 

'  Temple  of  Health,'  2. 

Tennis,   advertising,  75. 

Textiles,  58,  148. 

'  Theory,  The,  and  Practice  of 
Advertising,'  107. 

'  Thesaurus',  134. 

Thomson's,  Patrick,  174. 

Times,  The,  circulation,  34,  52, 
99 ;  quoted,  48,  108 ;  whole- 
page  advertisement,  87  ;  re- 
fuses advertisements,  192  ;  re- 
covery from  the  Pigott  scandal, 
194  ;  published  Encyclopaedia, 
217-218. 

Times  Book  Club,  The,  99. 

Times  Engineering  Supplement, 
The,  263. 

Times  Trade  Supplement,  The,  263. 

Tibbies,  Dr.,  11,  86. 

Tit-Bits,  187. 

Tobacco,  II,  69,  132,  232.  See 
also  Cigars  and  Cigarettes. 

Tomatoes,  branding  of,  271. 

Toronto  Globe,  advertisements  in, 

173- 

Trade-mark,  80 ;  name,  90 ; 
and  retail  advertising,  146- 
179  ;  when  to  use,  149  ;  coining 
a  name,  154  ;  Woollen,  280  ; 
national,  284. 

Trade-organisation,    economy   in, 

71- 
Trade-papers,  177-178. 
Traf&c  advertising,  269. 


3o6 


COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISING 


Tram-cars,  advertising  in,  i8i. 

Travellers,  65,  71. 

Tuer,  Andrew  W.,  advertises 
'  Stickphast,'  18. 

TumbuUs  Limited  trade-mark, 
128. 

Turnover,  retailers',  65,  66. 

Turog  bread,  13. 

Twinplex  stoppers,  merits  of,  84. 

Type,  characteristics  of,  19 ;  ex- 
aggerated sizes,  22 ;  arrange- 
ment of ,  38  ;  of  advertisements, 
122 ;  form,  144. 

Typewriters,  selling  of,  131. 


Umbrellas,    referenc  s    to     he 

sale  of,  137. 
Underwear,  132,  149,  241, 
United  States,  advertising  in,  72. 
University,  North- Western,  107. 
University  of  London,  43. 


Vacuum-cleaners,  14,  56. 
Value,  annual,  of  advertising,  46. 
Varnish,  72. 

Vaseline  as  a  trade-mark,    154- 
155. 


Veda  bread,  13. 
Vinolia  soap,  8;  10. 


Waggons,  steam,  271. 
Walter,  A.  F.,  218. 
'Want'  advertisements,  188. 
War  advertising,  259-262,  286. 
Westminster  Gazette,  193,  274. 
White  Star  Line,  advertising  by, 

269. 
Window-displays,  169,  181. 
Wolsey     Underwear,    advertising 

of  trade-mark  by,  149. 
Woollen,    Scottish,    Trade-marks 

Association  Limited,  280. 
Walker's  whisky,  83. 
Walls,  E.,  lectures  on  advertising, 

43. 
Walpole,  Horace,  quoted,  48. 
Wanamaker,  John,  21. 
War  Loan  advertising,  46,  84,  124. 
Waste  -materials  as  by-products, 

74-  .  ,     ^ 

Weldon,     Mrs.,     testimonial     to 

Pears'  soap,  9. 

Whisky,  advertising  of,  83. 

Whitebrook,  WilUam,  43. 


Printed  by  Spottiswoodk,  Ballantyne  &•  Co.  Ltd, 
Colchester,  London  cS*  Eton,  England 


LIST  OF  STUDIES  IN 
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A  Series  of  Monographs  by  Lecturers  and  Students  connected 
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EDITED    BY  THE 

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1.  The  History  of  Local  Rates  in  England.    The  substance  of 

five  lectures  given  at  the  School  in  November  and  December,  1895.  By  Edwin 
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2.  Select    Documents    Illastrating    the  History    of    Trade 

Unionism.  I. — ^The  Tailoring  Trade,  By  F.  W.  Galton.  With  a  Preface 
by  Sidney  Webb,  LL.B.     1896  ;   242  pp.,  crown  8vo,  cloth.     5s. 

P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

3.  German  Social  Democracy.    Six  Lectures  delivered  at  the 

School  in  February  and  March,  1896.  By  the  Hon.  Bertrand  Russell, 
B.A.,  late  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  With  an  Appendix  on 
Social  Democracy  and  the  Woman  Question  in  Germany.  By  Alys  Russell, 
B.A.     1896  ;  204  pp.,  crown  8vo,  cloth.     3s.  6d.  P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

4.  The  Referendum  in  Switzerland.— By  M.  Simon  Deploige, 

University  of  Louvain.  With  a  Letter  on  the  Referendum  in  Belgium  by 
M.  J.  VAN  den  Heuvel,  Professor  of  International  Law  in  the  University  of 
Louvain.  Translated  by  C.  P.  Trevelyan,  M.A.,  Trinity  College,  Cambridge, 
and  edited  with  Notes,  Introduction,  Bibliography,  and  Appendices,  by 
Lilian  Tomn  (Mrs.  Knowles),  of  Girton  College,  Cambridge,  Research  Student 
at  the  School.     1898  ;  x  and  334  pp.,  crown  8vo,  cloth.     7s.  6d. 

P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

5.  The  Economic  Policy  of  Colbert.    By  A.  J.  Sargent,  M.A., 

Senior  Hulme  Exhibitioner,  Brasenose  College,  Oxford ;  and  Whately  Prize- 
man, 1897,  Trinity  College,  Dublin.  1899  ;  viii  and  138  pp^  crown  8vo,  cloth. 
2s.  6d.  p.  o.  King  and  Son. 

6.  Local  Variations  in  Wages.     (The  Adam  Smith  Prize, 

Cambridge  University,  1898.)  By  F.  W.  Lawrence,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge.  1899  ;  viii  and  90  pp.,  with  Index  and  18  Maps  and 
Diagrams.    Quarto,  ii  in.  by  8  J  in.,  cloth.     8s.  6d. 

Longmans,  Green  and  Co. 

7.  The  Receipt  Roll  of  the  Exchequer  for  Michaelmas  Term  of 

the  Thirty-flrst  Year  0!  Henry  II  (1185).  A  imique  fragment  transcribed 
and  edited  by  the  Class  in  Palseography  and  Diplomatic,  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  Lecturer,  Hubert  Hall,  F.S.A.,  of  H.M.  Public  Record  Ofi&ce. 
With  thirty-one  Facsimile  Plates  in  Collotype  and  Parallel  readings  from  the 
contemporary  Pipe  Roll.  1899  ;  vii  and  37  pp.,  folio,  15^  in.  by  iii  in.,  in 
green  cloth ;  a  Copies  left.  Apply  to  the  Director  of  the  London  School  of 
Economics. 

8.  Elements  of  Statistics.— By  Arthur  L.  Bowley,  M.A.. 

Sc.D.,  F.S.S.,  Cobden  and  Adam  Smith  Prizeman,  Cambridge ;  Guy  Silver 
Medallist  of  the  Royal  Statistical  Society;  Newmarch  Lecturer,  1897-98. 
500  pp.  and  40  Diagrams,  demy  8vo,  cloth,  xgoi ;  Third  edition  1907; 
riii  and  336  pp.     its.  net.  P.  S.  King  and  Son 


9.  The  Place  of  Compensation  in  Temperance  Reform.    By 

C.  p.  Sanger,  M.A.,  late  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  Barrister-at- 
Law.     1901  ;  viii  and  136  pp.,  crown  8vo,  cloth.     2s.  6d.  net. 

P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

10.  A  History  of  Factory  Legislation.    By  B.  L,  Hutchins 

and  A.  Harrison  (Mrs.  Spencer),  B.A.,  D.Sc.  (Econ.),  London.  With  a  Preface 
by  Sidney  Webb,  LL.B.  1903;  new  and  revised  edition,  191 1  ;  xvi  and 
398  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth.     7s.  6d.  net.  P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

11.  The  Pipe  Roll  of  the  Exchequer  of  the  See  of  Winchester 
for  the  Fourth  Year  of  the  Episcopate  of  Peter  Des  Roches  (1207).  Tran- 
scribed and  edited  from  the  original  Roll  in  the  possession  of  the  Ecclesiastical 
Commissioners  by  the  Class  in  Palaeography  and  Diplomatic,  under  the 
supervision  of  the  Lecturer,  Hubert  Hall,  F.S.A.,  of  H.M.  Public  Record 
Office.  With  a  Frontispiece  giving  a  Facsimile  of  the  Roll.  1903  ;  xlviii  and 
100  pp.,  folio,  I3i  in.  by  8J  in.,  green  cloth.     15s.  net.       P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

12.  Self-Govemment  in  Canada  and  How  it  was  Achieved : 

The  Story  of  Lord  Durham 's  Report.  By  F.  Bradshaw,  B.A.,  D.Sc.  (Econ.), 
London ;  Senior  Hulme  Exhibitioner,  Brasenose  College,  Oxford.  1903  ; 
414  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth.     7s.  6d.  net.  P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

13.  History  of  the  Commercial  and  Financial  Relations  be« 
tween  England  and  Ireland  from  the  Period  of  the  Restoration.  By  Alicb 
Effie  Murray  (Mrs.  Radice),  D.Sc.  (Econ.),  London,  former  Student  at 
Girton  College,  Cambridge ;  Research  Student  of  the  London  School  of 
Economics  and  Political  Science.  1903  ;  486  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth.  7s.  6^;, 
net.  P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

14.  The  English  Peasantry  and  the  Enclosure  of  Common 

Fields.  By  Gilbert  Slater,  M.A.,  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge ;  D.Sc 
(Econ.),  London.     1906  ;   337  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth.     los.  6d.  net. 

Constable  and  Co. 

15.  A  History  of  the  English  Agricultural  Labourer.    By 

Dr.  W.  Hasbach,  Professor  of  Economics  in  the  University  of  Kiel.  Trans- 
lated from  the  Second  Edition  (1908),  by  Ruth  Ken  yon.  Introduction  by 
Sidney  Webb,  LL.B.  1908  ;  xvi  and  470  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth.  7s.  6a. 
net.  P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

16.  A  Colonial  Autocracy  :  New  South  Wales  under  Governor 

Macqnarie,  1810-1821.  By  Marion  Phillips,  B.A.,  Melbourne ;  D.Sc. 
(Econ.),  London.     1909  ;  xxiii  and  336  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth.     los.  6d.  net. 

P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

17.  India  and  the  Tariff  Problem.    By  H.  B.  Lees  Smith 

M.A.,  M.P.     1909  ;  120  pp.,  crown  8vo,  cloth.     3s.  td.  net. 

Constable  and  Co. 

18.  Practical  Notes  on  the  Management  of  Elections.    Three 

Lectures  delivered  at  the  School  in  November,  1909,  by  Ellis  T.  Powell, 
LL.B.,  D.Sc.  (Econ.),  London,  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Historical  and  Royal 
Economic  Societies,  of  the  Inner  Temple,  Barrister-at-Law.  1909  ;  52  pp., 
8vo,  paper,     is.  6d.  net.  P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

19.  The  Political  Development  of  Japan.    By  G.  E.  Uyehara, 

B.A.,  Washington,  D.Sc.  (Econ.),  London,  xxiv  and  296  pp.,  demy  8vo, 
cloth.     1 910.     8s.  6d.  net.  Constable  and  Co. 

20.  National  and  Local  Finance.    By  J.  Watson  Grice,  D.Sc. 

(Econ.),  London.  Preface  by  Sidney  Webb,  LL.B.  1910  ;  428  pp.,  demy 
8vo,  cloth.     I2S.  net.  P.  5.  King  and  Son. 

21.  An  Example  of  Communal  Currency.      Facts  about  the 

Guernsey  Market-house.  By  J.  Theodore  Harris,  B.A.,  with  an  Introduc- 
tion by  Sidney  Webb,  LL.B.  191 1 ;  xiv  and  62  pp.,  crown  8vo,  cloth. 
IS.  6d.  net ;  paper,  is.  net.  P.  S.  King  and  Son. 


22.  Municipal  Origins.  History  of  Private  Bill  Legislation. 
By  F.  H.  Spencer,  LL.B.,  D.Sc,  (Econ.),  London  ;  with  a  Preface  by  Sir 
Edward  Clarke,  K.C.  1911  ;  xi  and  333  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth,  los.  6d. 
net.  Constable  and  Co. 

23.  Seasonal  Trades.  By  various  Authors.  With  an  Intro- 
duction by  Sidney  Webb.  Edited  by  Sidney  Webb,  LL.B.,  and  Arnold 
Freeman,  M.A.     1912  ;    xi  and  410  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth.     75.  6d.  net. 

Constable  and  Co. 

24.  Orants  in  Aid.  A  Criticism  and  a  Proposal.  By  Sidney 
Webb,  LL.B,     191 1  ;  vii  and  135  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth.     5s.  net. 

Longmans,  Green  and  Co. 

25.  The  Panama  Canal :  A  Study  in  International  Law.    By 

H.  Arias,  B.A.,  LL.D.  191 1  ;  xiv  and  188  pp.,  2  maps,  bibliography,  demy 
8vo,  cloth.     105.  6d.  net.  P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

26.  Combination   Among   Railway   Companies.    By   W.   A. 

Robertson,  B.A.  1912  ;  105  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth,  is.  6d.  net ;  paper, 
IS.  net.  Constable  and  Co. 

27.  War  and  the  Private  Citizen  :    Studies  in  International 

Law.  By  A.  Pearce  Higgins,  M.A.,  LL.D.  ;  with  Introductory  Note  by 
the  Rt.  Hon.  Arthur  Cohen,  K.C.  1912  ;  xvi  and  200  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth. 
5s.  net.  P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

28.  Life  in  an  English  Village  :  an  Economic  and  Historical 
Survey  of  the  Parish  0!  Corsley,  in  Wiltshire.  By  M.  F.  Davies.  1909  ;  xiii 
and  319  pp.,  illustrations,  bibliography,  demy  8vo,  cloth,  los.  6d.  net. 

T.  Fisher  Unwin. 

29.  English  Apprenticeship  and  Child  Labour :    a  History. 

By  O.  JocELYN  DuNLOP,  D.Sc.  (Econ.),  London  ;  with  a  Supplementary 
Section  on  the  Modern  Problem  of  Juvenile  Labovu",  by  the  Author  and 
R.  D.  Denman,  M.P.  1912  ;  pp.  390,  bibliography,  demy  8vo,  cloth.  los.  6i. 
net.  T.  Fisher  Unwin. 

30.  Origin  of   Property  and  the   Formation  of  the  Village 

Community.  By  J,  St.  Lewinski,  D.Ec.Sc,  Brussels.  191 3  ;  xi  and  71  pp., 
demy  Svo,  cloth.     3s.  6d.  net.  Constable  and  Co. 

31.  The  Tendency  towards  Industrial  Combination  (in  some 

Spheres  of  British  Industry).  By  G.  R.  Carter,  M.A.  1913  ;  xxiii  and  391 
pp.,  demy  Svo,  cloth.     6s.  net.  Constable  and  Co. 

32.  Tariffs  at  Work  :  an  Outline  of  Practical  Tariff  Adminis- 
tration. By  John  Hedley  Higginson,  B.Sc.  (Econ.),  London,  Mitchell 
Student  of  the  University  of  London  ;  Cobden  Prizeman  and  Silver  Medallist. 
1913  »  150  pp.,  crown  8vo,  cloth.     2s.  6d.  net.  P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

33.  English  Taxation,  164Q-1799.  An  Essay  on  Policy  and 
Opinion.  By  William  Kennedy,  M.A.,  D.Sc.  (Econ.),  London ;  Shaw 
Research  Student  of  the  London  School  of  Economics  and  Political  Science. 
1913  ;  200  pp.,  demy  8vo.     7s.  6d.  net.  G.  Bell  and  Sons. 

34.  Emigration  from  the  United  Kingdom  to  North  America, 

1768-1912.  By  Stanley  C.  Johnson,  M.A.,  Cambridge,  D.Sc.  (Econ.), 
London.     1913  ;   xvi  and  387  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth.     6s.  net. 

G.  RotUledge  and  Sons. 

35.  The  Financing  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War,  1337-1360. 

By  Schuyler  B.  Terry.     1913  ;  xvi  and  199  pp.,  demy  Svo,  cloth.     6s.  net. 

Constable  and  Co. 

36.  Kinship  and  Social  Organisation.    By  W.  H.  R.  Rivers, 

M.D.,  F.R.S.,  Fellow  of  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge.  1914 ;  96  pp., 
demy  8vo,  cloth.     2s.  6d.  net.  Constable  and  Co. 


37.  The  Nature  and  First  Principle  of  Taxation.    By  Robert 

Jones,  D.Sc.  (Econ.),  London  ;  with  a  Preface  by  Sidney  Webb,  LL.B. 
1914  ;  xvii  and  299  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth,     ys.  6d.  net. 

P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

38.  The  Export  of  Capital.    By  C.  K.  Hobson,  M.A.,  D.Sc. 

J  Econ.),  London,  F.S.S.,  Shaw  Research  Student  of  the  London  School  of 
Economics  and  Political  Science.  1914 ;  xxv  and  264  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth. 
ys.  6d.  net.  Constable  and  Co. 

39.  Industrial  Training.    By  Norman  Burrell  Dearle,  M.A., 

D.Sc.  (Econ.),  London,  Fellow  of  All  Souls  College,  Oxford  ;  Shaw  Research 
Student  of  the  London  School  of  Economics  and  Political  Science.  1914  ; 
6io  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth.     10s.  6d.  net.  P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

40.  Theory  of  Rates  and  Fares.  From  the  French  of  Charles 
Colson's  "Transports  et  tarifs  "  (3rd  edition,  1907),  by  L.  R.  Christie,  G. 
Leedham,  and  C.  Travis.  Edited  and  arranged  by  Charles  Travis,  with  an 
Introduction  by  W.  M.  Acworth,  M.A.  1914  ;  viii  and  195  pp.,  demy  Svo, 
doth.     3S.  6d.  net.  G.  Bell  and  Sons.  Ud. 

41.  Advertising  :   a  Study  of  a  Modern  Business  Power.    By 

G.  W.  GooDALL,  B.Sc.  (Econ.),  London ;  with  an  Introduction  by  Sidney 
Webb,  LL.B.  1914  ;  xviii  and  91  pp.,  demy  Svo,  cloth.  2s.  6d.  net ;  paper, 
IS.  6d.  net.  Constable  and  Co. 

42.  English  Railways  :  their  Development  and  theur  Relation 

to  the  State.  By  Edward  Carnegie  Cleveland-Stevens,  M.A.,  Christ 
Church,  Oxford ;  D.Sc.  (Econ.),  London  ;  Shaw  Research  Student  of  the 
London  School  of  Economics  and  Politicsd  Science.  1915  ;  xvi  and  325  pp., 
demy  Svo,  cloth.     6s.  net.  G.  RotUledge  and  Sons. 

43.  The  Lands  of  the  Scottish  Kings  in  England.  By  Margaret 

F.  Moore  M.A.  ;  with  an  Introduction  by  P.  Hume  Brown,  M.A.,  LL.D., 
D.D.,  Professor  of  Ancient  Scottish  History  and  Palaeography,  University  of 
Edinburgh.     1915  ;  xii  and  141  pp.,  demy  Svo,  cloth.     5s.  net. 

George  Allen  and  Unwin. 

44.  The  Colonisation  of  Australia,  1829-1842  :  the  Wakefield 

Experiment  in  Empire  Building.  By  Richard  C.  Mills  LL.M.,  Melbourne  ; 
D.Sc.  (Econ.),  London  ;  with  an  Introduction  by  Graham  Wallas,  M.A., 
Professor  of  Political  Science  in  the  University  of  London.  1915  ;  xx,  363  pp., 
demy  Svo,  cloth.     105.  6d.  net.  Sidgwick  and  Jackson. 

45.  The  Philosophy  of  Nietzsche.    By  A.  Wolf,  M.A.,  D.Lit., 

Fellow  of  University  College,  London;  Reader  in  Logic  and < Ethics  in  the 
University  of  London.     1915  ;  114  pp.,  demy  Svo,  cloth.     3s.  6d.  net. 

Constable  and  Co. 

46.  English  Public  Health  Administration.    By  B.  G.  Ban- 

SJINGTON  ;  with  a  Preface  by  Graham  Wallas,  M.A.,  Professor  of  Political 
Science  in  the  University  of  London.  1915  ;  xiv,  33S  pp^  demy  Svo,  cloth. 
8s.  6d.  net.  P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

47.  British  Incomes  and  Property  :  the  Application  of  OflScial 

Statistics  to  Economic  Problems.  By  J.  C.  Stamp,  D.Sc.  (Econ.),  London. 
1906  ;  xvi,  538  pp.,  demy  Svo,  cloth.     12s.  6d.  net.        P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

48.  Village  Government  in  British  India.    By  John  Matthai. 

D.Sc.  (Econ.),  London;  with  a  Preface  by  "Sidney  Webb,  LL.B.,  Professor 
of  Public  Administration  in  the  University  of  London.  1915  ;  xix,  211  pp. 
demy  Svo,  cloth.     4s.  6d.  net.  T.  Fisher  Unwin. 

49.  Welfare  Work  :   Employers'  Experiments  for  Improving 

Working  Conditions  in  Factories.  By  E.  D.  Proud,  B.A.,  Adelaide;  D.Sc. 
(Econ.),  London  ;  with  a  Foreword  by  the  Rt,  Hon.  D.  Lloyd  George,  M.P. 
1916  ;  XX,  363  pp.,  demy  Svo,  doth.    7*.  6d.  net.  George  Bell  and  Sorts. 


50.  Rates  of  Postage.    By  A.  D.  Smith,  D.Sc.  (Econ.) ,  London 

1917  ;  xii,  431  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth.     165.  net.         George  Allen  and  Unmn. 

61.  Metaphysical  Theory  of  the  State.    By  L.  T.  Hobhouse. 

M.A.,  Martin  White  Professor  of  Sociology  in  the  University  of  London. 

1918  ;  156  pp.,  demy  Svo,  cloth,     ys.  6d.  net.  George  Allen  and  Unwin. 

52.  Outlines  of  Social  Philosophy.    By  J.  S.  Mackenzie,  M.A., 

Professor  of  Logic  and  Philosophy  in  the  University  College  of  South  Wales. 
1918  ;  280  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth.     iosi.6i.  net.         George  Allen  and  Unwin. 

53.  Economic  Phenomena  Before  and  After  War.    By  Dr. 

Slavko  Secerov,  M.Sc.  (Econ.)  1919;  viii,  226  pp.,  demy  Svo,  cloth. 
10s.  6d.  net.  6.  Routledge  and  Sons. 

54.  Gold  Prices  and  the  Witwatersrand.    By.  R.  A.  Lehfeldt, 

D.Sc,  Professor  of  Economics  at  the  South  African  School  of  Mines  and 
Technology,  Johannesburg  (University  of  South  Africa).  191?  ;  "  and  130 
pp.,  crown  8vo,  cloth.     5s.  net.  P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

55.  Exercises  in  Logic.     By  A.  Wolf,  M.A.,  D.Lit.,  Fellow 

of  University  College,  London  ;  Reader  in  Logic  and  Ethics  in  the  University 
of  London.     1919  ;  78  pp.,  crown  8vo,  paper.     35.  net. 

George  Allen  and  Unwin. 

56.  The  Working  Life  of  Women.    By  Alice  Clark,  Shaw 

Research  Student  of  the  London  School  of  Economics  and  Political  Science. 
(In  the  press.)  George  Routledge  and  Sons. 

57.  Animal  Foodstuffs.     By  E.  W.  Shanahan,  M.A.,  New 

Zealand  ;  D.Sc.  (Econ.),  London.    (In  the  press.)     George  Routledge  and  Sons. 

58.  Commercial  Advertising.  By  Thomas  Russell,  President 
of  the  Incorporated  Society  of  Advertisement  Consultants  ;  sometime  Adver- 
tisement Manager  of  the  Times.     1919  ;   x  and  306  pp.,  cloth.     los.  6d.  net. 

G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 

Monographs  on  Soeiologyf, 

3.  The    Material    Culture    and    Social    Institutions    of    the 

Simpler  Peoples.  By  L.  T.  Hobhouse^  M.A.,  Martin  White  Professor  of 
Sociology  in  the  University  of  London,  G.  C.  Wheeler,  B.A.,  and  M.  Gins- 
berg, B.A.     1915  ;  300  pp.,  demy  8vo,  paper.     2s.  6d.  net. 

Chapman  and  Hall. 

4.  Village  and  Town  Life  in  China.    By  Tag  Li  Kung,  B.Sc. 

(Econ.),  London,  and  Leong  Yew  Koh,  LL.B.,  B.Sc.  (Econ.),  London. 
Edited  by  L.  T.  Hobhouse,  M.A.     1915  ;   153  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth.     5s.  net. 

George  Allen  and  Unwin. 

Series  of  Bibliographies  h})  Students  of  the  School, 

1.  A  Bibliography  of  Unemployment  and  the  Unemployed. 

By  F.  Isabel  Taylor,  B.Sc.  (Econ.),  London.  Preface  by  Sidney  Webb, 
LL.B.     1909  ;  xix  and  71  pp.,  demy  Svo,  cloth,  2s.  net ;  paper^  is.  6d.  net. 

P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

2.  Two  Select  Bibliographies  of  Mediaeval  Historical  Study. 

By  Margaret  F.  Moore,  M.A.  ;  with  Preface  and  Appendix  by  Hubert 
Hall,  F.S.A.     1912  ;  185  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth.    5s.  net. 

Constable  and  Co. 

3.  Bibliography  of  Boadmaking  and  Roads  in  the  United 

Kingdom.  By  Dorothy  Ballen,  B.Sc.  (Econ.),  London.  An  enlarged  and 
revised  edition  of  a  similar  work  compiled  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sidney  Webb  in 
1906.     1914  ;  xviii  and  281  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth.     15s.  net. 

P.  S.  King  and  Son. 

4.  A    Select    Bibliography    for    the    Study,  Sources,    and 

Literature  0!  English  Mediaeval  Economic  History.  Edited  by  Hubert 
Hall,  F.S.A.     1914  ;  xiii  and  350  pp.,  demy  8vo,  cloth.     5s.  net. 

P.  S.  King  and  Son. 


Scries  of  Geographical  Studies. 

1.  The  Reigate  Sheet  of  the  One-mch  Ordnance  Survey.    A 

Study  in  the  Geography  of  the  Surrey  Hills.  By  Ellen  Smith.  Introduction 
by  H.  J.  Mackinder,  M.A.,  M.P.  1910  ;  xix  and  no  pp.,  6  maps,  23  illus- 
trations, crown  8vo,  cloth.     5s.  net.  A.  and  C.  Black. 

2.  The  Highlands  of  South-West  Surrey.  A  Geographical 
Study  in  Sand  and  Clay.  By  E.  C.  Matthews.  1911  ;  viii  and  124  pp., 
7  maps,  8  illustrations,  Svo,  cloth.     5s.  net.  A .  and  C.  Black. 


Series  of  Contour  Maps  of  Critical  Areas, 

1.  The  Hudson-Mohawk  Gap.  Prepared  by  the  Diagram 
Company  from  a  map  by  B.  B.  Dickinson.  1913  ;  i  sheet  18*  X_22j'. 
Scale  20  miles  to  i  inch.     6d.  net ;  post  free,  folded  yd.,  rolled  gd. 

Sifton,  Praed  and  Co. 


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